Global changes of expression patterns of vaccinia virus infected lungs of C57BL/6 mice.

Vaccinia virus infection of mouse lungs produces a focal infection within the lung remaining at the large bronchi throughout the course of infection. Animals die of respiratory failure with little edema and few infiltrating immune cells. It is well established that poxviruses control the host immune system by encoding multiple host defense pathway antagonists. The goal of this study was to examine the local response to infection within the lung given that the virus controls the host immune response. The global changes exhibited over the course of a lung infection with vaccinia virus were analyzed by arrays of lungs harvested from 1 to 5 day post infection using Affymetrix Mouse 430A 2.0 arrays.