Skip to main content
Infection and Immunity logoLink to Infection and Immunity
. 1975 Apr;11(4):829–834. doi: 10.1128/iai.11.4.829-834.1975

Comparative studies of Visna and Maedi viruses as antigens.

P D Mehta, H Thormar
PMCID: PMC415142  PMID: 164409

Abstract

Rabbits were immunized with purified visna and maedi viruses, using complete Freund adjuvant, in footpad and intramuscular sites. The resulting antisera and their isolated immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M (IgM) classes were evaluated by tanned-cell passive hemagglutination (PHA), complement fixation, gel diffusion, and virus neutralization tests. Early, intermediate, and late bleedings showed increasingly high antibody activities by the PHA, complement fixation, and gel diffusion tests. The activities were associated mainly with the IgG class, although low, but significant activities were also found in the IgM class, as detected by PHA and complement fixation tests. Both antibody classes appeared at the same time during the course of immunization. The viruses, when tested against specific rabbit anti-visna and anti-maedi sera in gel diffusion tests, showed the presence of one to two precipitin lines depending upon the antibody concentration of the sera. A low amount of neutralizing activity was demonstrated in late bleedings but was not seen in earlier bleedings. The neutralizing activity against visna virus in immunized rabbit sera was found to be associated only with the IgG class. Visna and maedi viruses appeared to be immunologically identical when examined in gel diffusion tests and showed the same degree of inhibition when compared in passive hemagglutination inhibition test using antisera made specific for each virus.

Full text

PDF
829

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. FAHEY J. L., MCKELVEY E. M. QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF SERUM IMMUNOGLOBULINS IN ANTIBODY-AGAR PLATES. J Immunol. 1965 Jan;94:84–90. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Haase A. T., Baringer J. R. The structural polypeptides of RNA slow viruses. Virology. 1974 Jan;57(1):238–250. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(74)90124-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. KUNKEL H. G. Zone electrophoresis. Methods Biochem Anal. 1954;1:141–170. doi: 10.1002/9780470110171.ch6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Karl S. C., Thormar H. Antibodies produced by rabbits immunized with visna virus. Infect Immun. 1971 Dec;4(6):715–719. doi: 10.1128/iai.4.6.715-719.1971. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. LOWRY O. H., ROSEBROUGH N. J., FARR A. L., RANDALL R. J. Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem. 1951 Nov;193(1):265–275. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lin F. H., Thormar H. Characterization of ribonucleic acid from visna virus. J Virol. 1971 May;7(5):582–587. doi: 10.1128/jvi.7.5.582-587.1971. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lin F. H., Thormar H. Ribonucleic acid-dependent deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase in visna virus. J Virol. 1970 Nov;6(5):702–704. doi: 10.1128/jvi.6.5.702-704.1970. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. OUCHTERLONY O. Diffusion-in-gel methods for immunological analysis. Prog Allergy. 1958;5:1–78. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. SCHEIDEGGER J. J. Une micro-méthode de l'immuno-electrophorèse. Int Arch Allergy Appl Immunol. 1955;7(2):103–110. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. SEVER J. L. Application of a microtechnique to viral serological investigations. J Immunol. 1962 Mar;88:320–329. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. STAVITSKY A. B. Micromethods for the study of proteins and antibodies. I. Procedure and general applications of hemagglutination and hemagglutination-inhibition reactions with tannic acid and protein-treated red blood cells. J Immunol. 1954 May;72(5):360–367. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. THORMAR H. A COMPARISON OF VISNA AND MAEDI VIRUSES. I. PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES. Res Vet Sci. 1965 Jan;6:117–129. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Terpstra C., De Boer G. F. Precipitating antibodies against maedi-visna virus in experimentally infected sheep. Arch Gesamte Virusforsch. 1973;43(1):53–62. doi: 10.1007/BF01249348. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Thormar H., Helgadóttir H. A comparison of visna and maedi viruses. II. Serological relationship. Res Vet Sci. 1965 Oct;6(4):456–465. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Thormar H. Visna and maedi virus antigen in infected cell cultures studied by the fluorescent antibody technique. Acta Pathol Microbiol Scand. 1969;75(2):296–302. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Infection and Immunity are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES