Involvement of interferon in virus-induced lymphopenia

Intraperitoneal injection of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) into mice causes marked and rapid changes in leukocyte distribution. The virus induces an increase in peripheral blood (PB) granulocytes and an extensive decrease in the lymphocyte count which reaches a nadir of less than 10% of preinfection values, 12 hr after virus inoculation. In the lymph nodes and spleen extensive lymphocyte translocation and granulocyte infiltration are observed. Most changes abate 48 hr following virus inoculation. Injection of poly(rI):(rC) causes similar changes to those observed with VSV. The lymphocyte changes observed after injection of VSV or poly(rI):(rC) coincide with high levels of interferon (IFN) in the serum. We have examined the effects of anti-IFN antibody on those changes and investigated whether they can be mimicked by injecting IFN. Our findings suggest that the IFN induced by VSV or poly(rI):(rC), rather than those agents themselves, causes the observed lymphopenia as well as some of the changes observed in the spleen. On the other hand, the effects of VSV on granulocyte localization do not appear to be mediated by IFN.