The pathogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus infection in cotton rats.

The cotton rat is susceptible to respiratory synctial virus infection in both the upper and lower portions of the respiratory tract. Virus replicates to high titer in the nose and lungs and to relatively low titer in the trachea. Immunofluorescence studies demonstrated viral antigen in the nasal epithelium and the bronchial and bronchiolar epithelium but not in the trachea or the alveolar cells of the lungs. Histopathologic changes included a desquamative, exudative rhinitis of moderate severity and a mild proliferative bronchiolitis. Serum neutralizing antibody developed in all animals by the ninth day after infection, reaching extremely high titer in several instances. Unlike the previously described response of experimentally infected infant ferrets, cotton rats are uniformly susceptible to pulmonary infection throughout life, thereby offering a model for long-term pulmonary studies heretofore not available.