An Attenuated Cytomegalovirus Vaccine with a Deletion of a Viral Chemokine Gene Is Protective against Congenital CMV Transmission in a Guinea Pig Model
Figure 4
The v545 virus is attenuated in a footpad inoculation model. Using calipers, differences between wild-type (vAM403) and CK deletion virus (v545) were noted following footpad inoculation, beginning at day 3 and progressing through day 6. The level of swelling produced by the vAM403 virus was noted to be ~20% above preinoculation levels, compared to the results obtained with v545 (). All swelling resulted from the effects of virus in the inoculum because inoculation of an identical volume of tissue culture medium alone failed to elicit any response (controls, Figure 4(a)). Feet were collected from sacrificed guinea pigs at day 6 after inoculation, and midline longitudinal sections were prepared. Examination by light microscopy at both low and high power (×10 and ×60; Figure 4(b)) revealed substantially larger amounts of both cellularity and edema in animals inoculated with vAM403 virus (Figure 4(b), right panel), containing the GPCMV MIP ORF, than in v545 virus-inoculated animals (Figure 4(b), middle panel) or in media-inoculated control (Figure 4(b), left panel).
