TISSUE LOCALIZATION OF SIV EXPRESSING GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN

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Studies of SIV pathogenesis in general and identification of early target cells of viral infection in particular would be greatly facilitated by techniques to readily identify infected cells. Toward this end, the Microbiology Division in collaboration with the Pathology Division has constructed a recombinant virus that is capable of expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) in vivo. EGFP was selected because the gene is small (717 bp) allowing for ready insertion into appropriate deletion mutants of SIVmac239. The insertion of EGFP into the nef locus of a variant of SIVmac239 that contained a large deletion in the nef gene produced a virus that replicated rapidly in CEMx174 cells and expressed EGFP resulting in strong fluorescence of the cells without addition of any chromogen. Over 90% of the cultured cells expressed EGFP when p27 gag expression reached its peak. The expression of EGFP remained stable in this cell line through multiple passages of the recombinant virus. To detect the immunophenotype virus-positive cells in vivo, we have modified our existing cryopreservation techniques to enhance colabeling of GFP and a secondary chromagen bound to monoclonal antibodies directed against cellular epitopes. In vivo we have detected abundant virus in CD4+ lymphocytes within peripheral lymph nodes and CFA granulomas in infected animals in a time frame similar to that observed with non EGFP-expressing virus.