Immunopathology of mouse hepatitis virus type 3 infection. III. Clinical and virologic observation of a persistent viral infection.

Three types of viral sensitivity were observed in various mouse strains upon MHV3 infection: resistance, full susceptibility, and semisusceptibility. In the latter type, seen in several inbred strains including C3H, approximately 50% of the adult injected animals resisted to the acute disease. Most of the surviving mice, however, developed a chronic disease with a wasting syndrome and occurrence of paralysis. The chronic period of the disease was characterized by a persistent viral infection, since MHV3 virus was recovered from brain, liver, spleen, and lymph nodes throughout the evolution in most of the animals. In addition, a correlation was observed between the clinical evolution and the titer of virus tested 4 days after infection.