Vitamin E deficiency intensifies the myocardial injury of coxsackievirus B3 infection of mice.
Feeding a vitamin E-deficient diet increases pathology in hearts of mice infected with a myocarditic coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3/20). Hearts from infected mice fed a vitamin E-deficient diet rich in highly unsaturated fat (menhaden oil) exhibited more severe pathology than hearts from infected mice fed a vitamin E-deficient diet based largely on saturated fat (lard). Furthermore, a cloned and sequenced amyocarditic coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3/0), which caused little or no pathology in the hearts of vitamin E-supplemented mice, induced extensive cardiac pathology in vitamin E-deficient mice. In infected mice, both mitogen and antigen responses were depressed by vitamin E deficiency, although neutralizing antibody responses were unaffected. Natural killer cell responses were comparable in infected mice fed a lard-based diet with or without supplemented vitamin E. However, a menhaden oil-based diet, whether supplemented with vitamin E or not, significantly depressed natural killer cell activity in infected mice compared with mice fed the lard-based diet. Coxsackievirus B3/0 recovered from the heart of a vitamin E-deficient donor mouse, passaged one time onto HeLa cells, caused significant heart damage when passed back into vitamin E-supplemented recipient mice, demonstrating that the amyocarditic CVB3/0 had changed to a virulent phenotype. Enhanced virulence was also seen with CVB3/20 virus similarly passaged in a vitamin E-deficient donor. Our work demonstrates the important role of host nutritional antioxidant status in determining the severity of certain viral infections.
Beck
M A
MA
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 27514-8180.
Kolbeck
P C
PC
Rohr
L H
LH
Shi
Q
Q
Morris
V C
VC
Levander
O A
OA
D000818:Animals; D003384:Coxsackievirus Infections / Q000473:pathology*; D004032:Diet; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage; D029822:Enterovirus B, Human / Q000472:pathogenicity; D005395:Fish Oils / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D009205:Myocarditis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology; D014774:Virulence; D014811:Vitamin E Deficiency / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*
D004041:Dietary Fats; D005395:Fish Oils; C033266:Menhaden oil; C029310:lard