Inoculation of adolescent CD-1 mice with one variant of coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3m) results in induction of readily observable myocardial lesions, whereas inoculation of siblings with a second variant (CVB3o) results in little or no myocarditis. These variants could not be distinquished from each other on the basis of replication properties in HeLa cells or cardiac tissues in vivo, sensitivity to human interferon in HeLa cells, induction of interferon in the mouse, generation of detectable levels of defective-interfering particles in HeLa cells or in cardiac tissue in vivo, stimulation of serum-neutralizing antibody titers, nor in their rate of clearance by the spleen. Infectivity of CVB3o was slightly more heat labile at 34 degrees C than CVB3m. Little if any replication of either CVB3o or CVB3m occurred in either adherent or nonadherent populations of normal murine lymphoid cells. Cardiac tissues from mice inoculated with CVB3m but not CVBo contain new antigens that can inhibit migration of sensitized lymphocytes from CVB3m-immunized mice in an in vitro cell-migration-inhibition assay. However, the CVB3o variant was shown to have the genetic capability of inducing myocarditis if the mice were treated with cyclophosphamide prior to virus inoculation. These results suggest, in agreement with our previously published work, that induction of myocarditis by CVB3 requires destruction of myocytes by virus and subsequent stimulation of cell-mediated responses to new antigens produced in the myocardium during virus replication.

Fully grown oocytes 1.2 mm in diameter were removed from Xenopus laevis ovaries and were exposed to progesterone (2.5 micrograms/ml in Ringer's solution) to induce completion of the first maturation division or germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD). This process required 5.5 +/- 0.5 hr. Neither oocyte volume nor water content was observed to change throughout maturation. At selected times, the oocytes were quick frozen in liquid propane and cryosectioned. The sections were freeze-dried, and analyzed for K, Na, Cl, P, S, and Mg in millimolar per kilogram dry weight content in the nucleus and the yolk-free cytoplasm using electron probe X-ray microanalysis. Unstimulated oocytes showed significant nuclear to yolk-free cytoplasmic content gradients (N/C ratio) for the following elements: K (1.84), P (0.65), and S (1.56), but significant N/C content gradients were not found for Na and Mg. By 10 min after progesterone stimulation, a significant change in the N/C ratio of the following elements had occurred due to a rapid increase in nuclear content: K (2.29), Cl (2.11). A significant N/C ratio for Mg (1.35) had developed by 10 min after progesterone stimulation and a significant N/C ratio for Na (2.07) had developed by 45 min. In addition the following elements showed significant content increases in both the nucleus and the yolk-free cytoplasm from the time prior to progesterone stimulation to the time just prior to GVBD at 240 min: K, Na, Cl, P, S, and Mg. Nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of the spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) of water proton in oocytes showed a significant increase in the T1 time after progesterone exposure. The changes in N/C ratios of specific elements and in the physical parameter of water proton relaxation time suggest that progesterone is responsible for inducing changes in the physicochemical interactions between various macromolecules, specific elements, and water.

Energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis measured the Na, K, Cl, P, Mg, S, and Ca contents (mM/kg dry weight) in the nucleus, yolk-free cytoplasm, and yolk platelets of Rana pipiens oocytes quick frozen in the ovary. The data revealed that significant content changes occur in frog oocytes during intraovarian growth. All elements but Ca changed in content in the nucleus and cytoplasm, while in the yolk platelet only Na content did not change. A nucleus to cytoplasm K gradient develops and increases in magnitude during oocyte growth. The data from this and previous reports lead to the hypothesis that intra-oocytic water and elements undergo changes in state during oocyte growth and that three subcellular Na compartments exist.