Antibody, macrophages, dengue virus infection, shock, and hemorrhage: a pathogenetic cascade.

Dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS) in children is reliably associated with the presence of dengue antibody--actively or passively acquired--before the onset of illness. Limited observations by electron microscopy and fluorescent antibody testing and the recovery of virus from tissues obtained at autopsy show that dengue viruses are consistently associated with cells of mononuclear phagocyte lineage. In particular, virus is associated with Kupffer cells, pulmonary macrophages, and mononuclear cells in skin and blood. Endothelial cells fail to demonstrate necrosis or inflammatory changes. Since acute vascular permeability, shock, and hemorrhage occur late in illness, a plausible hypothesis is that phlogistic factors, resulting from interactions with elements of the immune response, are released from virus-infected mononuclear phagocytes. Such phenomena as generalized depression of mitotic activity of bone marrow cells, destruction of mature polymorphonuclear leukocytes, complement activation, and abnormal hemostasis may serve as markers of these phlogistic factors. It will be of interest to establish whether other viral hemorrhagic fevers involve the same target cells as in DHF/DSS and are mediated by similar effector mechanisms.