Immunologic requirements for the adoptive transfer of ectromelia virus meningitis.

Intracerebral infection with the Hampstead egg strain of ectromelia virus in mice produced a meningitis with clinical signs and death. A single injection of cyclophosphamide three days after infection delayed the onset of pathology and clinical signs. Adoptive transfer of immune spleen cells into preinfected recipients could induce the meningitis earlier. These donor-immune cells were virus-specific in their action. The Ig- population, deficient in B lymphocytes, could transfer meningitis; but donor-immune cells depleted of T lymphocytes by anti-theta treatment or the Ig+ population, deficient in T-cells, were unsuccessful. Studies with labeled cells showed a preferential accumulation of labeled donor cells in cerebrospinal fluid in the first 24 hours post-transfer, whereas labeled recipient cells accumulated between 24 and 48 hours. The results demonstrated that the adoptive transfer of ectromelia virus meningitis was a cell-mediated inflammatory process.