HUMAN PARVOVIRUS B19 INFECTION INDUCES
APOPTOSIS IN HEMATOPOIETIC
CELLS OF FETAL LIVER AND FETAL CARDIAC MUSCLE CELLS
SUN X, ZHANG G-C, ZHENG Y-J, XU D-L, CHENG S-Q & QIAN X-H
Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
Objective:
To
investigate the apoptosis and its gene expression in hematopoietic cells of
fetal liver and cardiac
muscle cells induced by Human
parvovirus B19 (HPVB19).
Methods:
In situ end-labeling (ISEL) was
used to detect the apoptosis in 37 paraffin embedded fetal
hepatic tissue samples and 34 fetal cardiac tissue samples and immunohistochemical method was used to
investigate the expression of the Bcl-2,Bax and Fas gene.
Results: Apoptosis was found in 10
HPVB19-DNA positive hematopoietic cells of fetal liver (10/17) and 7 cardiac
muscle cells (7/14). While it was only found in 3 HPVB19-DNA
negtive hematopoietic cells of fetal liver (3/20) and 2 cardiac muscle
cells (2/20). Bcl-2 immunoreactivity was only detected in cardiac muscle
cells. The positive expression rates of Bcl-2 for HPVB19-DNA positive cases
and conrtol groups were 64.29% (9/14) and 60% (12/20) respectively. The
positive expression rates of Bax in HPVB19-DNA positive hematopoietic cells
of fetal liver and fetal cardiac muscle cells were 52.94% (9/17) and 42.86
(6/14) respectively. There was significant difference between HPVB19-DNA
positive cases and control groups. The positive expression rates of Fas in
HPVB19-DNA positive hematopoietic cells of fetal liver and fetal cardiac
muscle cells were 35.29% (6/17) and 14.29% (2/14) respectively, no
siginficant differences existed between them and control groups.
Conclusions:
HPVB19 may
induce apoptosis
of hematopietic cells of fetal liver and fetal cardiac muscle cells by
modulating the expression of Bax instead of Bcl-2 and Fas, and the virus may cause
fetal death by this way.