The mucosal lesion in viral enteritis. Extent and dynamics of the epithelial response to virus invasion in transmissible gastroenteritis of piglets.

In transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) of piglets, an infection closely resembling human rotavirus enteritis, we studied the timing and extent of epithelial viral invasion along the small intestine after a single oral inoculum of virus; we related these findings to measured alterations in mucosal structure, kinetics, and differentiation, and to previously documented abnormalities of ion transport that occurred at the height of diarrhea. Six and twelve hours after inoculation, before diarrhea, extensive specific viral immunofluorescence and viral particles on electron microscopy were seen in villus but not crypt enterocytes in jejunum, mid-intestine, and ileum. At 24 and 40 hr, when diarrhea was most severe, immunofluorescence was patchy; villus blunting ( P P P P P