Publication: Apoptosis of thymocytes in experimental African Swine Fever virus infection
Authors
Salguero, F.J. ; Sánchez-Cordón, P.J. ; Sierra, M. A. ; Jover, A. ; Núñez, A. ; Gómez-Villamandos, J. C.
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Publisher
Murcia : F. Hernández
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DOI
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
This paper report on the lesions occurred in
the thymus in experimental acute African swine fever
(ASF). Twenty-one pigs were inoculated with the highly
virulent ASF virus (ASFV) isolate Spain-70. Animals
were slaughtered from 1 to 7 days post infection (dpi).
Three animals with similar features were used as
controls. Thymus samples were fixed in 10% buffered
formalin solution for histological and immunohistochemical
study and in 2.5% glutaraldehyde for
ultrastructural examination. For immunohistochemical
study, the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC)
technique was used to demonstrate viral protein 73 and
porcine myeloid-histiocyte antigen SWC3 using specific
monoclonal antibodies. Cell apoptosis was evaluated by
the TUNEL assay. Blood samples were taken daily from
all pigs and were used for leukocyte counts. The results
of this study show a severe thymocyte apoptosis not
related to the direct action of ASFV on these cells, but
probably to a quantitative increase in macrophages in the
thymus and their activation. A decrease in the
percentage of blood lymphocytes was observed at the
same time No significant vascular changes were
observed in the study. With these results we suggest that ASFV infection of the thymus does not seem to play a
critical role in the acute disease. Although severe
apoptosis was observed, animals died because of the
severe lesions found in the other organs.
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