viruses Article Type II Grass Carp Reovirus Infects Leukocytes but Not Erythrocytes and Thrombocytes in Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) Ling Yang 1,2,3 and Jianguo Su 1,2,3,* 1 Department of Aquatic Animal Medicine, College of Fisheries, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China;
[email protected] 2 Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao 266237, China 3 Engineering Research Center of Green Development for Conventional Aquatic Biological Industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430070, China * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel./Fax: +86-27-8728-2227 Abstract: Grass carp reovirus (GCRV) causes serious losses to the grass carp industry. At present, infectious tissues of GCRV have been studied, but target cells remain unclear. In this study, peripheral blood cells were isolated, cultured, and infected with GCRV. Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western Blot, indirect immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, and transmis- sion electron microscopy observation, a model of GCRV infected blood cells in vitro was established. The experimental results showed GCRV could be detectable in leukocytes only, while erythrocytes and thrombocytes could not. The virus particles in leukocytes are wrapped by empty membrane vesicles that resemble phagocytic vesicles. The empty membrane vesicles of leukocytes are different from virus inclusion bodies in C. idella kidney (CIK) cells. Meanwhile, the expression levels of IFN1, Citation: Yang, L.; Su, J. Type II IL-1b, Mx2, TNFa were significantly up-regulated in leukocytes, indicating that GCRV could cause Grass Carp Reovirus Infects the production of the related immune responses.