Alphaherpesvirus saimiri infection in rabbits. 1. Light and electron microscopy study of cutaneous spinal nerves.

A light and electron microscopic study was undertaken to determine pathological changes in cutaneous spinal nerves of rabbits following intradermal inoculation with alphaherpesvirus saimiri (alpha HVS) isolate KM 322. Infected rabbits were killed at 3, 10, 17, 45 days and 2 years after infection. No abnormalities were seen at 3 days postinoculation. In the nerves of the rabbits killed at 10, 17 and 45 days after infection, axonal (Wallerian-type) degeneration was the main pathological feature. Regeneration, manifested by axonal sprouting, was observed in the nerves of the rabbits killed at 45 days post-inoculation. Neural fibrosis and paucity of unmyelinated axons was the final outcome. The severity of the neural damage not only varied according to the progression of the disease but between nerves taken from the same rabbit. This was probably associated with variation in the numbers of virus particles that had reached the dorsal root ganglion of the dermatome served by a particular nerve. Since alpha HVS (isolate KM 322) provides a model system for the study of virus latency in dorsal root ganglia, and consequently for the study of varicellazoster infection in man, these findings give further insight into the pathology of herpetic neuropathy.