Since cytokines play an important role in the pathogenesis of virus‐induced chronic heart diseases, cytokine mRNA expression was studied in coxsackievirus B3‐infected NMRI mice during the acute phase of myocarditis until the onset of chronic cardiac disease. Virus replication, cytokine induction, inflammatory cell infiltration and myocardial damage were studied by titer determination, reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), and histopathology. To investigate whether the coxsackievirus B3‐induced cytokine mRNA accumulation was only limited to the heart or generalized, spleen and thymus specimens were also included. Surprisingly, interleukin (IL)‐10 as a deactivator of T cell and macrophage functions was transcribed in the myocardium nearly in parallel with virus replication from Day 1 through Day 14. At Day 3 p.i., the mRNA of IL‐1α, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, IL‐6, and interferon (IFN)‐β accumulated. At Days 4, 7, and 14, IL‐12‐specific mRNA was produced. Furthermore, increasing amounts of IFN‐γ mRNA were found, whereas IL‐2 and IL‐4 mRNA remained undetectable. TNF‐α, IL‐1α, IL‐10, IL‐12, and IFN‐γ mRNA persisted into the late stage of myocarditis. In the spleen a closely correlated expression of virus and IL‐10‐specific mRNAs was also found, and in addition, IFN‐β, TNF‐α, and IL‐6 were detected. In striking contrast to heart and spleen tissue, the distinct expression of viral RNA in the thymus was not accompanied by an increased cytokine mRNA production. These data provide evidence for a unique coxsackievirus B3‐induced cytokine pattern in the myocardium and spleen and suggest that persistently expressed IL‐10 may play a leading role in acute and chronic myocarditis by subverting the immune response. J. Med. Virol. 61:518–526, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.