Data from: Effects of protein malnutrition on tolerance to helminth infection

Infection tolerance is the ability of a host to limit the health effects of a given parasite load. A few recent studies have demonstrated genetic variation for tolerance, but little is known about how environmental factors affect tolerance. Here, we used the intestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus in laboratory mice to test for effects of protein malnutrition on tolerance. We performed an experiment where two different mouse strains (CBA and BALB/c) were fed either adequate-protein food or low-protein food, and trickle-infected with different doses of H. polygyrus larvae during four weeks. We found that protein malnutrition decreases tolerance measured as intestinal barrier function, but only in one of the strains (BALB/c); that is, there was a host genotype-by-environment interaction for tolerance. We conclude that nutritional status can affect tolerance and that sensitivity of tolerance to malnutrition may differ between host genotypes.

感染耐受（Infection tolerance）指宿主抑制特定寄生虫负荷所引发健康损伤的能力。近期已有多项研究证实耐受性状存在遗传变异，但学界对环境因素如何调控感染耐受的认知仍较为匮乏。本研究以实验小鼠感染肠道线虫多形螺旋线虫（Heligmosomoides polygyrus）为实验体系，检验蛋白质营养不良对感染耐受的影响。实验设置两种小鼠品系（CBA与BALB/c），分别饲喂正常蛋白饲料与低蛋白饲料，并在为期四周的实验周期内，以不同剂量的多形螺旋线虫幼虫对小鼠进行微量连续感染。结果显示，蛋白质营养不良会降低以肠道屏障功能为衡量指标的感染耐受能力，但该效应仅在BALB/c品系小鼠中显著；即感染耐受存在宿主基因型-环境互作效应。本研究得出结论：营养状态可影响感染耐受能力，且不同宿主基因型的感染耐受对营养不良的敏感性存在差异。