Studies on the genetic and cellular control of sensitivity to enterotoxins in the sealed adult mouse model.

A sealed adult mouse (SAM) model was developed for studies on the effects of cholera enterotoxin (CT). With this system, 38 strains of outbred, inbred, congenic, recombinant, and mutant mice were starved for 24 h, anorectally occluded with cyanoacrylamide ester glue, given CT per os, and sacrificed at 6 h. Fluid accumulation (FA) values were calculated as gut weight to body weight ratios. At a saturating dose of CT (24 micrograms per mouse), FA responses were found to be independent of body weight and gut length. It was found, using recombinant and congenic mice, that mice which possess the H-2k haplotype (homozygous or heterozygous) are 2.5 to 3 times less responsive to CT than animals with the H-2b haplotype. The allele(s) responsible for this affect is located near the K end of the H-2 complex. Inbred and congenic mice given CT intravenously exhibited the same (b = responder, k = nonresponder) pattern in terms of weight loss and death, thus indicating that the H-2 effect is not limited just to the small intestinal epithelium. Mice given sublethal doses of CT intravenously and challenged after conversion to SAM 14 days later showed an immune response inversely related to weight loss (i.e., b haplotypes lost 10 to 15% body weight, recovered, but were not protected against challenge; k haplotypes lost little or no weight but were protected). To examine the possibility of a cellular basis for control of innate responses to CT, responder C57BL/10 (B10) mice were irradiated with 950 rads and immediately reconstituted with bone marrow from (B10 X B10.BR)F1 (nonresponder) mice. The chimeras became nonresponsive to CT when challenged 5 weeks after reconstitution. Reconstituted B10 controls responded normally. Outbred and inbred nude athymic mice also were nonresponsive when compared with normal responder controls. These data demonstrate a genetic basis for resistance to CT and that response and nonresponse is mediated, at least in part, by cells derived from bone marrow.