Quantitative Analysis of Viral RNA in the Murine Heart and Pancreas with Different Concentration of Coxsackievirus B3

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the clinical features, pathologic changes, and viral RNA kinetics in the course of acute and subacute experimental coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection in a murine model. METHODS: Five-week-old A/J inbred male mice were divided into 5 groups. Four of those groups were inoculated intraperitoneally with 5 x 10(4) (group 1), 1 x 10(5) (group 2), 5 x 10(5) (group 3), or 1 x 10(6) (group 4) PFU of CVB3. Control mice were inoculated with uninfected Vero cell lysate in DMEM. Mice from each group were sacrificed on days 7 or 14 after inoculation. RESULTS: Bloody diarrhea, earlier weight loss, perianal swelling, and death were correlated with higher viral load. One of ten mice in group 3 and 5 of 10 mice in group 4 died spontaneously between days 4 and 12 after inoculation. All of the remaining 34 mice of infected groups demonstrated extensive pancreatic inflammation. Focal myocarditis developed in only 4 (11.8%) of those 34 subjects. Amylase and creatine kinase activities in the serum were increased in the mice of infected groups. CVB3 RNA was detected in the heart and pancreatic tissue in all subjects. The CVB3 RNA copy number in pancreatic tissue was not correlated with the severity of inflammation. CONCLUSIONS: In the murine model, viral loading dose determines the clinical features of CVB3-induced infection, and the severity of pancreatitis is not correlated with the viral loading dose or tissue level of viral RNA. .