Impairment of bone marrow pre-B and B cells in MHV3 chronically-infected mice

Mouse hepatitis virus type 3 (MHV3) appears to be an excellent model for the study of the relationship between viral-induced immunodeficiency and the development of chronic disease. Animal surviving acute hepatitis develop a chronic disease characterized by viral persistency in various organs, by a humoral immunodeficiency, and eventually die within the next three months postinfection. To verify if B cell immunodeficiency occurs during the chronic disease, percentage and absolute number of bone marrow B lineage cell subpopulations were recorded at various times postinfection (p.i.) in pathogenic L2-MHV3-infected (C57BL/6 x A/J) F1 mice. Absolute numbers of B (cmu+smu+) cells decreased as early as three days p.i. up to 15 days p.i., and then gradually returned toward normal values in L2-MHV3-infected mice during the chronic disease. In contrast, pre-B (cmu+smu-) cells were less significantly decrease during the chronic disease. In addition, abnormally enlarged cells (> 13 microns) were detected either in bone marrow pre-B or B cells from L2-MHV3-infected mice.