title: Effects of protein malnutrition on tolerance to helminth infection.
abstract: Infection tolerance is the ability of a host to limit the health effects of a given parasite load. A few recent studies have demonstrated genetic variation for tolerance, but little is known about how environmental factors affect tolerance. Here, we used the intestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus in laboratory mice to test for effects of protein malnutrition on tolerance. We performed an experiment where two different mouse strains (CBA and BALB/c) were fed either adequate-protein food or low-protein food, and trickle-infected with different doses of H. polygyrus larvae during four weeks. We found that protein malnutrition decreases tolerance measured as intestinal barrier function, but only in one of the strains (BALB/c); that is, there was a host genotype-by-environment interaction for tolerance. We conclude that nutritional status can affect tolerance and that sensitivity of tolerance to malnutrition may differ between host genotypes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Functional Zoology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7323-0382
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Clough
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Functional Zoology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Olena
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5788-9176
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Prykhodko
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Functional Zoology, Lund University, Sölvegatan 35, 223 62 Lund, Sweden lars.raberg@biol.lu.se.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5219-7448
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Råberg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004044:Dietary Proteins; D060467:Disease Resistance / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007411:Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology*; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D009351:Nematospiroides dubius / Q000502:physiology*; D011488:Protein Deficiency / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology*; D017206:Strongylida Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology*
chemical_list: D004044:Dietary Proteins
keywords: helminth; intestinal permeability; resistance; tolerance