Transmissible Gastroenteritis: Mucosal ion transport in acute viral enteritis

McClung, H.J.; Butler, D.G.; Kerzner, B.; Gall, D.G.; Hamilton, J.R.

Ion transport in the jejunal mucosa of 14- to 16-day-old piglets with severe diarrhea 40hr after infection with transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) virus was studied. In infected pigs Na(+) transport failed to. respond normally to glucose when studied either in Ussing short-circuited chambers or in suspensions of enterocytes isolated selectively from jejunal villi. Theophylline, 10 mm, added to the chambers produced the same brisk electrical responses and increments in net Cl(−) secretion in tissue from both infected and control groups. A defect in glucose-stimulated Na(+) absorption in the acute stage of a viral enteritis has been identified which probably contributes to the impaired lumen-to-extracellular fluid flux of Na(+) found previously in the jejunum of intact TGE-infected pigs. The mechanisms causing diarrhea in this invasive viral enteritis differ from those causing toxigenic diarrhea.