C57BL/6J and C57BL/6NJ Mice Are Differentially Susceptible to Inflammation-Associated Disease Caused by Influenza A Virus

Influenza viruses cause seasonal epidemics and sporadic pandemics, and are a major burden on human health. To develop better countermeasures and improve influenza disease outcomes, a clearer understanding of influenza pathogenesis is necessary. Host genetic factors have emerged as potential regulato...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in microbiology 2019-01, Vol.9, p.3307-3307
Main Authors: Eisfeld, Amie J, Gasper, David J, Suresh, M, Kawaoka, Yoshihiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
H1N1
H5N1
H7N9
inflammation
influenza
Microbiology
pathogenicity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Influenza viruses cause seasonal epidemics and sporadic pandemics, and are a major burden on human health. To develop better countermeasures and improve influenza disease outcomes, a clearer understanding of influenza pathogenesis is necessary. Host genetic factors have emerged as potential regulators of human influenza disease susceptibility, and in the mouse model, genetic background has been clearly linked to influenza pathogenicity. Here, we show that C57BL/6J mice are significantly more susceptible to disease caused by a 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus, an H7N9 virus, and a highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus compared to the closely related substrain, C57BL/6NJ. Mechanistically, influenza virus infection in C57BL/6J mice results in earlier presentation of edema, increased immune cell infiltration, higher levels of inflammatory cytokines, greater tissue damage, and delayed activation of regenerative processes in infected lung tissues compared to C57BL/6NJ mice. These differences are not dependent on virus replication levels. Six genes with known coding region differences between C57BL/6J and C57BL/6NJ strains exhibit increased transcript levels in influenza virus-infected mouse lungs, suggesting potential contributions to regulation of disease susceptibility. This work uncovers a previously unappreciated difference in disease susceptibility between the closely related C57BL/6J and C57BL/6NJ mice, which may be exploited in future studies to identify host factors and/or specific genetic elements that regulate host-dependent inflammatory mechanisms involved in influenza virus pathogenicity.
ISSN:1664-302X
1664-302X
DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2018.03307