title: Benign coxsackievirus damages heart muscle in iron-loaded vitamin E-deficient mice.
abstract: Several oxidative stressors (dietary selenium deficiency, dietary vitamin E deficiency coupled with fish oil feeding, genetic reduction of glutathione peroxidase activity) allow a normally benign coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3/0) to damage heart muscle in host mice. This study investigated whether dietary iron overload, another oxidant stress, would also permit CVB3/0 to exert a cardiopathologic effect in vitamin E-deficient (-VE) mice. Four groups of mice were fed either a -VE or a +VE diet containing either an adequate or an excessive (30x) amount of iron. After 4 weeks of feeding, the mice were inoculated with CVB3/0 and heart damage was assessed at various times postinfection. Mice fed a diet sufficient in VE with excess iron developed heart damage equivalent to mice fed a diet deficient in vitamin E without excess iron. However, severe heart damage occurred in the group fed a diet deficient in VE with excess iron, which was the most pro-oxidative diet. The highest heart viral titers were found in mice fed the -VE/excessive iron diet. However, the extent of heart damage did not always correlate with the formation of TBARS in liver homogenates. Further research is needed to clarify the role of oxidative stress and iron overload in determining the course of viral infection.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina, 3312 Medical Bio-Molecular Research Building, CB 7224, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7224, USA. melinda_beck@unc.edu
authors.forename: Melinda A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Virginia C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Orville A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Levander
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D029822:Enterovirus B, Human / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004769:Enterovirus Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D019190:Iron Overload / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D009205:Myocarditis / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D017392:Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances / Q000378:metabolism; D014811:Vitamin E Deficiency / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D017392:Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances