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Vitamin A Deficiency Diminishes the Salivary Immunoglobulin A Response and Enhances the Serum Immunoglobulin G Response to Influenza A Virus Infection in BALB/c Mice^1,2,3,

Department of International Health, School of Public Health ^* Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294

We examined the effect of vitamin A deficiency on the secretory immunoglobulin (Ig) A and serum IgG response to influenza A virus infections in BALB/c mice. Mice fed a vitamin A-deficient (VAD mice) or a control diet were inoculated with influenza virus at 7 or 9 wk of age when serum retinol concentration had dropped to 0.35 µmol/L in the VAD mice. The influenza-specific salivary IgA response to a mild infection (intranasal inoculation without anesthesia) was not significantly lower in the VAD group (5.3 ± 2.1% of total IgA 4 wk after infection) than in the control group (10 ± 11%, P > 0.05). In a separate experiment, this salivary IgA response was significantly lower in the VAD mice (0.3 ± 0.4% of total IgA) following a more severe infection (intranasal infection while under anesthesia) than it was in control mice (4.2 ± 4.6% of total IgA, P < 0.0001). In contrast, the concentration of total salivary IgA was uniformly greater in the VAD mice than in the control mice during both the mild infection (VAD, 17 ± 6 mg/L vs. control, 8 ± 11 mg/L at 3 wk, P < 0.0001) and the severe infection (VAD, 38 ± 30 mg/L vs. control, 9 ± 7 mg/L, P < 0.0001). Similarly, the influenza-specific serum IgG response was also greater in the VAD mice than in the control mice during both the mild infection (VAD, 194 ± 91 mg/L vs. control, 79 ± 95 mg/L at 5 wk, P = 0.0002) and the severe infection [VAD median, 202 mg/L (25th, 75th percentiles, 153, 409 mg/L) vs. control, 123 mg/L (42, 165 mg/L), P = 0.0023]. Thus VAD significantly impairs the secretory IgA response to influenza infection but modestly increases the serum IgG response to the same infection.

KEY WORDS: • mice • vitamin A • IgA • IgG • influenza

¹ We wish to acknowledge the support of research grant RO1 HD30293 from the National Institutes of Health.

² Some of these data were presented at Experimental Biology 95, April 1995, Atlanta, GA [Stephensen, C., Moldoveanu, Z., Gangopadhyay, N. & Blount, S. (1995) Vitamin A deficiency impairs the secretory IgA response to influenza A virus infection in BALB/c mice. FASEB J. 9: A732 (abs.)].

³ The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

⁴ To whom correspondence and reprints requests should be addressed.

Manuscript received 19 June 1995. Revision accepted 5 October 1995.