Hyperglycemia in BALB/c mice after pretreatment with one subdiabetogenic dose of streptozotocin and subsequent infection with a Coxsackie B4 strain

Abstract

Male BALB/c mice were injected with one subdiabetogenic dose of streptozotocin followed by Coxsackie B4 virus infection 7 days later. The animals developed a transient hyperglycemia after streptozotocin-pretreatment and infection with a human Coxsackie B4 isolate. Frozen sections of pancreata stained with FITC-labeled antibodies showed an intensive infection of the exocrine tissue. Immunofluorescence studies with isolated islets obtained from streptozotocin-treated or untreated animals demonstrated virus antigen in about 20% of the islets 5 days after in vivo virus infection. It is supposed that the hyperglycemia measured in our experiments was caused by a cumulative effect of streptozotocin and virus infection.