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Enhanced Severity of Experimental Herpes simplex Infection in Mice Fed a Protein-free Diet¹

The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Four-week old weanling ICR male mice were made hypoproteinemic after feeding them an experimental protein-free diet for one week. Their capacity to respond to infection with Herpes simplex virus was compared with that of a group of mice fed a regular diet and whose serum protein content was normal. Mice fed the protein-free diet differed from the normal group in the following respects:

1) They had higher mortality, since a dose sufficient to kill all mice fed a protein-free diet in 9 days killed only 20% of the normal mice.

2) Although both groups developed viremia, the mice fed the protein-free diet had a 100-fold greater blood concentration of the virus; moreover, viremia persisted until death in the deficient mice, whereas it terminated in the normal ones between 36 and 42 hours.

3) The minimal dose sufficient to induce viremia in the mice fed the protein-free diet was tenfold lower than the one required to induce viremia in the normoproteinemic mice.

4) Mice fed the protein-free diet consistently developed encephalitis, whereas in normoproteinemic mice, encephalitis occurred only sporadically.

Manuscript received 5 July 1967.