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Relationship of Lymphoid Lesions to Disease Course in Mucosal Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Type C Infection

Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection typically has a prolonged and variable disease course in cats, which can limit its usefulness as a model for human immunodeficiency virus infection. A clade C FIV isolate (FIV-C) has been associated with high viral burdens and rapidly progressive disease in cats. FIV-C was transmissible via oral-nasal, vaginal, or rectal mucosal exposure, and infection resulted in one of three disease courses: rapid, conventional/slow, or regressive. The severity of the pathologic changes paralleled the disease course. Thymic depletion was an early lesion and was correlated with detection of FIV RNA in thymocytes by in situ hybridization. The major changes in thymic cell populations were depletion of p55+/S100+ dendritic cells, CD3- cells, CD4+/CD8- cells, and CD4+/CD8+ cells and increases in apoptosis, CD45R+ B cells, and lymphoid follicles. In contrast to thymic depletion, peripheral lymphoid tissues often were hyperplastic. Mucosally transmitted FIV-C is thymotropic and induces a spectrum of lymphoid lesions and disease mirroring that seen with the human and simian immunodeficiency virus infections.

Key words: Apoptosis; cats; feline immunodeficiency virus; immunodeficiency; lymphoid depletion; lymphoid hyperplasia; thymic depletion.

Request reprints from Dr. E. A. Hoover, Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University, 300 West Lake Street, Fort Collins, CO 80523 (USA).

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