Protein-Calorie Malnutrition Impairs the Anti-Viral Function of Macrophages 1

Abstract

Summary

Mice which are normally resistant to infection with Wesselsbron (WBV) virus became rapidly susceptible to disease due to this agent after being placed on protein-depletion diet. After ip inoculation large amounts of virus appeared in the circulation followed by fatal encephalitis. In normally fed mice only small amounts of virus could be detected in blood and no disease developed. This suggested that local defense mechanisms which normally restrict the extent of infection was sensitive to the early effects of protein-calorie malnutrition. That this was due at least in part to impaired antiviral function of macrophage under these conditions was confirmed by in vitro macrophage studies. Over the course of 24 hr infectious WBV disappeared after inoculation into cultures of normal macrophages whereas infectivity persisted at high titers in macrophages from protein-depleted mice.

This work was supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.