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Early acute depletion of lymphocytes in calicivirus-infected adult rabbits

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Abstract

Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD) is a lethal infection caused by calicivirus that kills 90% of the infected adult rabbits within 3 days. The calicivirus replicates in the liver and causes a fulminant hepatitis. Most studies on the pathology of RHD have been focused on the fulminant liver disease. This may not be the only mechanism in the pathogenesis of RHD: calicivirus infection may also induce leukopenia in the infected adult rabbits. We show now by flow cytometry analysis that the calicivirus induces an early decrease in B and T cells, in both spleen and liver. The depletion of B and T cells was associated with apoptosis labelled by annexin V. These changes occurred in rabbits before they showed enzymatic evidence of liver damage and persisted after liver transaminase values were very high. We conclude that depletion of lymphocytes caused by the calicivirus infection precedes or attends liver damage. The relative contribution of this lymphocyte depletion for the pathogenesis of the fatal calicivirus infection of rabbits remains to be investigated.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Professor Francisco Parra (University of Oviedo) for the offer of the initial sample of calicivirus suspension that was used to infect the rabbits. We thank Dr. José Carlos Oliveira (Santo António Hospital), Mrs. Maria Júlia Reis (Santo António Hospital) and Mrs. Manuela Silva for excellent technical assistance. This work was funded by grants from FCT, Portugal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, ICBAS (Abel Salazar Institute for Biomedical Science) and UMIB (Unit for Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research), University of Porto, Largo Professor Abel Salazar, 2, 4099-003, Porto, Portugal, European Union

    Raquel M. Marques, António Costa-e-Silva, Artur P. Águas, Luzia Teixeira & Paula G. Ferreira

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  1. Raquel M. Marques
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  2. António Costa-e-Silva
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  3. Artur P. Águas
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  4. Luzia Teixeira
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  5. Paula G. Ferreira
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Correspondence to Raquel M. Marques.

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Marques, R.M., Costa-e-Silva, A., Águas, A.P. et al. Early acute depletion of lymphocytes in calicivirus-infected adult rabbits. Vet Res Commun 34, 659–668 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-010-9437-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-010-9437-7

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