Date of Award:

5-1-1983

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Biology

Department name when degree awarded

Life Sciences:Biology

Committee Chair(s)

John R. Simmons

Committee

John R. Simmons

Committee

Robert W. Sidwell

Committee

Bill B. Barnett

Committee

Arthur W. Mahoney

Committee

Rex S. Spendlove

Abstract

A possible correlation between malnutrition and the increased incidence and severity of rotavirus-associated gastroenteritis in human infants was investigated using a mouse model originally described by others, but which was further defined and characterized as . a part of these studies. Two- or three-day-old specific-pathogen free Swiss Webster mice were orally infected with a 10% homogenate of intestines from mice infected with murine rotavirus. In the resulting disease, gross signs (diarrhea, alteration in intestinal appearance, failure to gain weight) and histologic changes typical of rotaviral gastroenteritis were manifest. Although quantification was not feasible by immunofluorescent staining, this technique did reveal the presence of rotaviral antigen in infected intestines. Quantification of the antigen, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, showed that intestinal content of virus peaked about day 4-6 post-infection. By day 30, dams of infected animals developed moderately high titers of serum antibody. Neither antibody nor interferon production could be detected in pooled sera of young mice. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was shown to be more sensitive for the titration of murine rotavirus antigen in mouse intestines than either complement-fixation or hemagglutination. The offspring of dams fed diets deficient in all nutrients developed more severe diarrheal disease, when challenged with murine rotavirus, than animals whose dams received an adequate diet. Weight gain decreased, deaths increased, and survival times were lower. No differences were seen in intestinal lesion appearance or in intestinal virus antigen titers. The serum antibody response of dams which received the deficient diets and which had been exposed to rotavirus appeared to be suppressed. Cross-fostering experiments using the 40 and 100% N/C diets indicated that both prenatal and postnatal effects are important in resistance to rotaviral infection. In studies using diets with low, normal, and high protein content, low diet protein was found to increase the severity of murine rotavirus infection and incidence of diarrhea. The high protein group did not differ from the group whose dams received normal levels of protein.

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