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Screening enteroviruses for -cell tropism using foetal porcine -cells

Enterovirus Laboratory, National Public Health Institute, Mannerheimintie 166, FIN-00300 Helsinki, Finland¹
Transplantation Laboratory, Haartman Institute and Hospital for Children and Adolescents, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland²

Author for correspondence: Merja Roivainen. Fax +358 9 4744 8406. e-mail merja.roivainen{at}ktl.fi

Primary adult human insulin-producing -cells are susceptible to infection by prototype strains of coxsackieviruses (CV) and infection may result in impaired -cell function and/or cell death, as shown for coxsackie B virus (CVB) types 4 and 5, or have no apparent immediate adverse effects, as shown for CVA-9. Because of the limited availability of human pancreatic -cells, the aim of this study was to find out if foetal porcine pancreatic islets could be used as a substitute in enterovirus (EV) screening. These cells resemble human -cells in several biological properties. CVB infection resulted in a rapid progressive decline of insulin content and reponsiveness to insulin release. The amount of virus inoculum sufficient for this destruction was small, corresponding to only 55 infectious units per pancreas. In contrast to CVBs, CVA-9 replicated poorly, and sometimes not at all, in foetal porcine -cells. The first signs of functional impairment and cell destruction, if present at all, were seen only after 1–3 weeks of incubation. Furthermore, CVA-16, several strains of echoviruses and human parechovirus type 1 were unable to replicate in foetal porcine pancreatic -cells. Based on these results, foetal porcine islets are somewhat more sensitive to CVB infection than adult human islets, whereas many other human EV strains do not infect porcine -cells. Therefore, foetal porcine -cells cannot be used for systematic screening of human EV strains and isolates for -cell tropism, but they might provide a useful model for detailed studies on the interaction of CVBs with -cells.

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