Effect of antithymocyte serum of murine cytomegalovirus emcephalitis in weanling mice.

The symptomatology and histopathological picture were studied in weanling mice inoculated intracerebrally with MCMV and treated with ATS. Increased mortality was observed and fatal encephalopathy developed. Lesions in the brain included areas of necrosis with neuronal degeneration without marked inflammatory cell response until the 21st day after infection. In contrast, the brain of mice inoculated with virus alone or with virus and treated with NSH showed perivascular cuffs and focal infiltration with little or no evidence of loss of neurons. These observations suggest that the degenerative lesions in the brain are directly related to virus multiplication and that the inflammatory response is beneficial rather than detrimental.