Effect of mouse hepatitis virus infection on iron retention in the mouse liver.

Increased iron uptake and iron-induced ferritin synthesis has been demonstrated in experimentally virus-infected cell cultures. However, this has not been observed in the intact animal. The results reported in this paper indicate that higher deposition of injected radioiron occurs in the livers of mice infected with MHV-3 virus compared with livers from uninfected animals. Administration of iron at different time intervals indicated that iron uptake correlates well with the degree of tissue injury in the livers of infected animals.