{"doi":"10.3389/fviro.2022.829991","title":"Interleukin-10 Delays Viral Clearance in the Placenta and Uterus of Mice With Acute Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus Infection During Pregnancy","abstract":"Pregnant mice infected with Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus (Armstrong) (LCMV-Arm) experience high viral loads in the placenta and uterine tissue by 5–8 days post-infection, a time when the virus is nearly completely cleared from the spleen and blood. Interleukin 10 (IL-10) plays a crucial role in T cell responses associated with systemic viral clearance. Using the LCMV-arm model of infection, we examined first, whether IL-10 is involved in viral clearance in the placenta and uterine tissue and secondly, the potential mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. C57BL/6 (WT) and mice deficient in IL-10 (IL-10 KO) were infected with LCMV-Arm on day 10 of pregnancy. Placenta and uterine tissue, collected 2 and 8 days later, were analyzed using real time RT-PCR, plaque assays for viral load, and flow cytometry. In WT mice placenta and uterine tissue expression of IL-10 was elevated with LCMV-Arm infection. Fetus resorption was elevated in WT on days 2 and 8 post-infection as compared to IL-10 KO, and by day 19 of gestation delivery was greater. Viral loads in the placenta and uterine tissue were resolved early in IL-10 KO mice, but persistent in tissues of WT mice. Levels of NRF2 and FAS were equivalent, but BCL2L11 was higher in IL-10 KO uterus. IL-6, Interferon-β (IFN-β), CCL2, and IL-17 levels were also equivalent. IL-10 KO tissues tended toward higher expression of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and had significantly lower expression of Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β). The proportion of placenta and uterine tissue CD8 T cells expressing the activation markers CD44 hi and PD1 were elevated in IL-10 KO mice. These data suggest that high IL-10 expression at the fetal-maternal interface following LCMV-Arm infection prevents clearance of viral load by impairing CD8 T cell activation and poses a significant threat to successful pregnancy outcome. The ability to modulate IL-10 expression at the maternal-fetal interface may help overcome negative pregnancy outcomes arising during acute LCMV and other viral infections in humans.","journal":"Frontiers in Virology","year":2022,"id":277995,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9546,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":628709,"name":"Sandhya Khurana","orcid":"0000-0002-3167-1152","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":455499,"name":"Elizabeth A. Bonney","orcid":"0000-0002-4744-1941","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":950031,"name":"Vidya Devi Negi","orcid":"0000-0001-6835-556X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":93,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:28:43.133347Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}