Herpes simplex virus, type 1 invasion of the rabbit and mouse nervous systems revealed by in situ hybridization.

Using a 3H-labelled virion DNA probe applied to tissue sections, we have previously identified the precise microscopic anatomical location of herpes simplex virus (HSV) during the acute and latent stages of infection of the mouse trigeminal ganglia and central nervous system (CNS). In the present investigation, we compared the mouse and the rabbit with respect to their ability to support acute and latent infections of trigeminal ganglionic and central nervous system neurons. We found that HSV-1, strain F, produced acute and latent infection of trigeminal ganglion cells in both mice and rabbits; however, lower levels of HSV-1 RNA were expressed in rabbit neurons as compared to mouse neurons, and many fewer neurons of the rabbit supported an acute infection than in the mouse. Studies of the trigeminal system within the CNS revealed that HSV-1 established latency more readily in the mouse than in the rabbit. The histopathology observed in acutely infected rabbit brain was less intense and less widespread than in mouse brain.