TY - JOUR
T1 - Rotavirus disease, but not infection and development of intestinal histopathological lesions, is age restricted in rabbits
AU - Ciarlet, Max
AU - Gilger, Mark A.
AU - Barone, Christopher
AU - McArthur, Mark
AU - Estes, Mary K.
AU - Conner, Margaret E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are extremely grateful to Reginald Semiens for excellent work in the maintenance of rabbits; Sharon Krater for expert tissue culture technical assistance; Krista LaFosse and Roberto Guerrero for help during animal inoculations; Robert S. Geske for embedding, sectioning, and staining of tissue samples; and Charles A. Montgomery for critical histopathological analyses. This work was supported by World Health Organization Grant MIMV 2718130 and by U.S. Public Health Service Grant AI-24998 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
PY - 1998/11/25
Y1 - 1998/11/25
N2 - The rabbit model of rotavirus infection has proved to be useful for assessing active immunity and protection after infection or vaccination with virus or virus-like particles. One limitation of the rabbit model is that after experimental infection of rabbits, clinical diarrhea is not routinely induced. Lack of diarrhea in the rabbit model has been proposed to be due to the fluid absorptive capability of the cecum or attenuation of virus strains through tissue culture adaptation. To test whether a wild-type lapine rotavirus strain BAP (BAPwt) isolated from diarrheic rabbits would cause disease on passage in rabbits, 1-, 2-, 10-, and 16-week-old rabbits were orally inoculated with BAPwt, its tissue culture-adapted counterpart strain (BAP-2), tissue culture-adapted lapine strain ALA, or PBS. Lapine rotavirus infection in 1-week-old, but not ≥2-week-old, rabbits resulted in the development of disease characterized by soft, wet, yellow-to-brownish-green partially formed-to-liquid stools observed only at the time of virus antigen shedding. The level and duration of virus shedding after infection were prolonged in 1-week-old rabbits compared with rabbits ≥2 weeks of age. Although diarrhea was not observed beyond the first 2 weeks of life, histopathological changes, including villus shortening and fusion, increased vacuolation of epithelial cells, and mononuclear infiltration of the lamina propria, were observed throughout the small intestine between 12 and 120 h after ALA infection in 1-week-old, 1- to 2-month-old, and 11-month-old rabbits. In 11-month-old rabbits, onset of intestinal damage appeared to be slightly delayed, was less severe, and was not observed in the duodenum. There were no differences in the immune responses to rotavirus infection in rabbits of different age groups (1 week to 5 years of age). All lapine rotavirus-inoculated rabbits seroconverted and were protected from virus challenge at 28 days postinoculation. Like in mice, rotavirus disease is age restricted in rabbits.
AB - The rabbit model of rotavirus infection has proved to be useful for assessing active immunity and protection after infection or vaccination with virus or virus-like particles. One limitation of the rabbit model is that after experimental infection of rabbits, clinical diarrhea is not routinely induced. Lack of diarrhea in the rabbit model has been proposed to be due to the fluid absorptive capability of the cecum or attenuation of virus strains through tissue culture adaptation. To test whether a wild-type lapine rotavirus strain BAP (BAPwt) isolated from diarrheic rabbits would cause disease on passage in rabbits, 1-, 2-, 10-, and 16-week-old rabbits were orally inoculated with BAPwt, its tissue culture-adapted counterpart strain (BAP-2), tissue culture-adapted lapine strain ALA, or PBS. Lapine rotavirus infection in 1-week-old, but not ≥2-week-old, rabbits resulted in the development of disease characterized by soft, wet, yellow-to-brownish-green partially formed-to-liquid stools observed only at the time of virus antigen shedding. The level and duration of virus shedding after infection were prolonged in 1-week-old rabbits compared with rabbits ≥2 weeks of age. Although diarrhea was not observed beyond the first 2 weeks of life, histopathological changes, including villus shortening and fusion, increased vacuolation of epithelial cells, and mononuclear infiltration of the lamina propria, were observed throughout the small intestine between 12 and 120 h after ALA infection in 1-week-old, 1- to 2-month-old, and 11-month-old rabbits. In 11-month-old rabbits, onset of intestinal damage appeared to be slightly delayed, was less severe, and was not observed in the duodenum. There were no differences in the immune responses to rotavirus infection in rabbits of different age groups (1 week to 5 years of age). All lapine rotavirus-inoculated rabbits seroconverted and were protected from virus challenge at 28 days postinoculation. Like in mice, rotavirus disease is age restricted in rabbits.
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U2 - 10.1006/viro.1998.9406
DO - 10.1006/viro.1998.9406
M3 - Article
C2 - 9837799
AN - SCOPUS:0032567048
SN - 0042-6822
VL - 251
SP - 343
EP - 360
JO - Virology
JF - Virology
IS - 2
ER -