Flow cytometric characterization of Marek’s disease virus infected macrophages and dendritic cells at later time points

Abstract

Marek’s disease virus (MDV) infects APCs (antigen-presenting cells: macrophages and/or dendritic cells [DCs]), B cells and activated T cells in vivo. MDV is a highly cell-associated virus which makes in vitro studies difficult. A de novo in vitro MDV-APC infection model has therefore been developed to carry out extensive studies regarding the MDV-APC interactions in the context of resistance or susceptibility to Marek’s disease (MD). Using this model, MDV-macrophage interactions were previously studied at 1 dpi (day post infection). This study was aimed to characterize MDV-APC interactions by flow cytometry at later time points (3 and 5 dpi) following infection with MDV. Chicken bone marrow-derived macrophages and DCs from MD resistant (6₁) and susceptible (7₂) line were infected with MDV in vitro for 3 and 5 days. Flow cytometric study revealed that macrophages from line 7₂ had a higher infection rate than those of line 6₁ on both the days. On the other hand, no difference was observed regarding infection rate between DCs of the two chicken lines. The findings of this study boost up the previous perception of macrophages playing an important role in exerting resistance to MD.