HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Zhan, J. Articles by Gu, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Zhan, J. Articles by Gu, J.

The spleen as a target in severe acute respiratory syndrome

Jun Zhan^*, Ruishu Deng, Junmin Tang^*, Bo Zhang, Yan Tang^*, Jeffrey K. Wang, Feng Li^*, Virginia M. Anderson, Michael A. McNutt and Jiang Gu^,,1

^* Department of Histology and Embryology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China;

Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medical Science, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China;

Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA; and

Department of Pathology, State University of New York-Heath Science Center at Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, USA

¹Correspondence: Department of Pathology Dean, School of Basic Medical Sciences Director, Peking University Infectious Disease Center, 38 Xueyan Rd., Beijing 100083, China. E-mail: jianggu{at}bjmu.edu.cn

It has been proposed that immune injury is the central mechanism of pathogenesis of the infectious disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). To gain a better understanding of immune injury in the spleen, we investigated the number and distribution of various immune cell types in the spleens of SARS patients. We performed autopsies on six confirmed SARS cases, with six normal subjects as controls; spleen samples from these autopsies were examined with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) sections, in situ hybridization for SARS virus genomic sequences, and immunohistochemistry with seven monoclonal antibodies to five cell types. The number and distribution of these cells were measured and analyzed using an image analysis system. SARS genomic sequences were detected in all SARS spleens. The SARS spleens all had severe damage to the white pulp and showed an alteration of the normal distribution of various cell types. Immunocytes in the red pulp were decreased by 68.0–90.7% except for CD68⁺ macrophages and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR positive antigen-presenting cells (APC), which were decreased to a lesser degree. On average, CD68⁺ macrophages were increased in size by 2.21-fold. We hypothesize that the collapse of the splenic immune system plays a key role in the clinical outcome of these patients.—Zhan, J., Deng, R., Tang, J., Zhang, B., Tang, Y., Wang, J. K., Li, F., Anderson, V. M., McNutt, M. A., Gu, J. The spleen as a target in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Key Words: immunodeficiency • T lymphocytes • B lymphocytes • SARS

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Gu and C. Korteweg Pathology and Pathogenesis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Am. J. Pathol., April 1, 2007; 170(4): 1136 - 1147. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]