The effect of trauma on production of herpes interferon in guinea pigs

Abstract

The adverse effect of trauma on host resistance has been one of the basic concepts in immunology. Recent studies of virus-induced interferons have shown that their production was supressed by trauma-type conditions, such as those produced by X-ray irradiation (1), the administration of steroids (see 2) or antimetabolites (3--5) as well as cold (6--7) and stress (8).It is well known that, among viral infections, those of herpes simplex virus are particularly sensitive to traumatic insults to the hosts, which may elicit an overt infection from a quiescent focus. In view of a possible role of interferon in resistance to this virus, determinations were made of the levels of interferon production in guinea pigs challenged with herpes simplex virus following traumatic insults. The results to be described hereafter seem to suggest both an active role of interferon in resistance to this virus and a marked susceptibility of interferon-producing system to trauma. Materials and MethodsTissue cultures. Two types of cells, primary rabbit and guinea pig kidney cells were used. The procedure for preparing the former has been described previottsly (9--10). The latter cells were prepared from guinea pig embryo kidneys. The minced tissue was first trypsinized with 0.1 ~o Trypsin (Difco 1:250) for 2 hours at room temperature. The cells then were centrifuged at 500 r.p.m, for 20 rain. The sedimented cells were resuspended in the growth medium in a concentration of l0 s cells per ml. and distributed in tissue culture tubes (1 ml./tube) and 4 oz. Sani-prescription bottles (5 ml./bottle)

The Sick and the Weak: Neuropathies/Myopathies in the Critically Ill

“…This concept originally emerged in animal studies designed to characterize individual cytokines. For example, circulating interferon (IFN) levels were markedly increased in mice following endotoxin administration or bacterial infection (663) or in guinea pigs subjected to burn injury (709). In discovering tumor necrosis factor-␣ (TNF-␣), Carswell et al (106) found that plasma TNF-␣ levels were increased by administering endotoxin to mice, a finding later extended to rats and rabbits (521).…”

The protective effect of different immunoglobulins against herpetic encephalitis and skin infection in guinea pigs

“…Biological and chemical agents. The method of preparation of purified herpes serum interferon has been described previously (17). The serum obtained 6 hours after the intravenous injection of 10 g p.f.u, of herpes simplex virus was used unmodified as the interferon-containing serum.…”

“…Administration of hydroeortisone every 24 hours after inoculation of the virus (Group A6) or in a single dose 24 hours after the inoculation (Group B 10) and its administration in a single dose 72 hours after the inoculation did not significantly change the survival time (Group AT). Herpes interferon given 24 and 48 hours after the inoculation in a dose of 1024 units (17) resulted in survival of only one of 15 guinea pigs (Group A9). Four of 8 guinea pigs survived when crude serum containing interferon (512 units) was given daily for 5 days and a smaller virus inoculum was used (Group ]312).…”

Pyrogenicity of human adenoviruses

“…There have been many fewer studies on the pyrogenicity of other viruses. Pyrogenic activities have so far been reported with Western equine encephalitis virus (Fastier, 1952 ), coxsackievirus (King, 1962 , 1964 ) and herpesvirus (Tokumaru, 1967 , 1968 ). It was reported that no pyrogenicity was found with vaccinia virus (King, 1962 ) and also with poliovirus and echo virus (Siegert, 1967 ; Grossgebauer, 1967 ).…”