The current view of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) infection includes a necrotic process that relies primarily on the histological appearance of tissue after the degenerative process. We tested this view by examining the possibility that apoptosis is a component of double-stranded RNA virus (IPNV) that induces fish embryonic cell death. Four kinds of assays for apoptosis were used in analyzing IPNV-infected CHSE-214 cells: (1) assay with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated end-labeling of DNA in nuclei of intact cells during virus infection, (2) assay for procoagulant activity, (3) assay for DNA ladders, and (4) electron microscopic assays for the ultrastructural changes in characteristic apoptotic cells. In all p.i. samples, both low and high m.o.i. groups contained apoptotic nuclei, according to TdT-mediated dUTP labeling of intact cells, but in control CHSE-214 cells, apoptotic nuclei were rare at all levels of incubation sampled by TdT-mediated dUTP labeling. Prenecrotic or postnecrotic cells were found to express phosphatidylserine on the surface by annexin V-FITC labeling, but normal cells did not. DNAs from both 4 h p.i. of high m.o.i. and 8 h p.i. of low m.o.i. were found to be cleaved into fragments indicative of preferential cleavage at internucleosomal sites. The IPNV-infected CHSE-214 cells were analyzed with an electron microscope and showed a pattern of ultrastructural change, indicating that apoptosis appears before pathological changes of necrosis, including condensed chromatin, fragmented nuclei, nuclei with chromatin marginations, and secondary necrosis from prenecrotic cells in IPNV-infected CHSE-214 cells. Together, these findings show that apoptosis precedes any detectable necrotic change in CHSE-214 cells that is currently viewed as necrosis. Thus, apoptosis characterizes the onset of pathology in host cells and is followed by necrotic processes.

During development, the role of the phosphatidylserine receptor (PSR) in the removal of apoptotic cells that have died is poorly understood. We have investigated this role of PSR in developing zebrafish. Programmed cell death began during the shield stage, with dead cells being engulfed by a neighboring cell that showed a normal-looking nucleus and the nuclear condensation multi-micronuclei of an apoptotic cell. The zebrafish PSR engulfing receptor was cloned (zfpsr), and its nucleotide sequence was compared with corresponding sequences in Drosophila melanogaster (76% identity),human (74%), mouse (72%) and Caenorhabditis elegans (60%). The PSR receptor contained a jmjC domain (residues 143-206) that is a member of the cupin metalloenzyme superfamily, but in this case serves an as yet unknown function(s). psr knockdown by a PSR morpholino oligonucleotide led to accumulation of a large number of dead apoptotic cells in whole early embryo. These cells interfered with embryonic cell migration. In addition, normal development of the somite, brain, heart and notochord was sequentially disrupted up to 24 hours post-fertilization. Development could be rescued in defective embryos by injecting psr mRNA. These results are consistent with a PSR-dependent system in zebrafish embryos that engulfs apoptotic cells mediated by PSR-phagocytes during development, with the system assuming an important role in the normal development of tissues such as the brain, heart,notochord and somite.

Morphologically, apoptotic cells are characterized by highly condensed membrane blebbing and formation of apoptotic bodies. Recently, we reported that apoptosis precedes necrosis in a fish cell line infected with infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV). In the present study, we tested the possibility that nontypical apoptosis is a component of IPNV-induced fish cell death. A variant type of green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was expressed in a fish cell line such that EGFP served as a protein marker for visualizing dynamic apoptotic cell morphological changes and for tracing membrane integrity changes during IPNV infection. Direct morphological changes were visualized by fluorescence microscopy by EGFP in living cells infected with IPNV. The nontypical apoptotic morphological change stage occurred during the pre-late stage (6 to 7 h postinfection). Nontypical apoptotic features, including highly condensed membrane blebbing, occurred during the middle apoptotic stage. At the pre-late apoptotic stage, membrane vesicles quickly formed, blebbed, and were finally pinched off from the cell membrane. At the same time, at this pre-late apoptotic stage, apoptotic cells formed unique small holes in their membranes that ranged from 0.39 to 0.78 μm according to examination by scanning electron microscopy and immunoelectron microscopy. Quantitation of the intra- and extracellular release of EGFP by CHSE-214-EGFP cells after IPNV infection was done by Western blotting and fluorometry. Membrane integrity was quickly lost during the late apoptotic stage (after 8 h postinfection), and morphological change and membrane integrity loss could be prevented and blocked by treatment with apoptosis inhibitors such as cycloheximide, genistein, and EDTA before IPNV infection. Together, these findings show the apoptotic features at the onset of pathology in host cells (early and middle apoptotic stages), followed secondarily by nontypical apoptosis (pre-late apoptotic stage) and then by postapoptotic necrosis (late apoptotic stage), of a fish cell line. Our results demonstrate that nontypical apoptosis is a component of IPNV-induced fish cell death.

Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) causes an acute, contagious disease in a number of economically important fish species (Pilcher & Fryer 1980). It is a member of the Birnaviridae (Brown 1986). In this study, the present authors first characterized the process of fish cell damage caused by IPNV infection in cultured cells, and found that it induced fragmentation of chromosomal DNA into oligonucleosomes and also caused nuclear fragmentation by secondary necrosis.