Intestinal Total IgA and Rotavirus - specific IgA Detection in ICR Mouse Model

ABSTRACT

In a murine model system, enhancement of the total IgA and rotavirus-specific IgA of suckling mice was measured by ELISA with the intestinal fluid following oral administration of murine rotavirus EC (EDIM-Cambridge) strain. In the EC strain-administered group, the geometric mean titers (GMT) of total IgAs were 512 and 91 at 1 and 2 week postinfection, respectively. On the other hand, the GMTs of the rotavirus-specific IgAs were 108 and 3 at the same periods, respectively. Thus increase in the total IgAs was 64 folds and that in the rotavirus-specific IgAs was 43 folds compared with the negative control group. As the maximal titers of both the total and rotavirus-specific IgAs were observed at 1 week decreasing until 2 weeks after infection, it is evident that the GMT of the total IgA implies that of rotavirus-specific IgA. In our ELISA system, whose specificity was verified by Western blot analysis, the total IgA in the administered group was determined to be 40-400 ng per 1 ml of the intestinal fluid. Therefore it is concluded that determination of the rotavirus-specific IgA in murine models can be a sensitive indication of rotavirus infection, and will be another promising tool in viral challenge experiments in vaccine development.