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

Infection tolerance represents 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）指宿主在感染特定寄生虫负荷后，限制其引发健康损害的能力。近期已有少量研究证实该耐受性状存在遗传变异，但目前对环境因素如何影响感染耐受仍知之甚少。本研究以实验小鼠为模型，利用肠道线虫多形螺旋线虫（Heligmosomoides polygyrus）探究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，并在为期四周的时间内以不同剂量的多形螺旋线虫幼虫进行连续感染。研究发现，蛋白质营养不良会降低以肠道屏障功能为检测指标的感染耐受能力，但该效应仅在BALB/c品系小鼠中出现；换言之，感染耐受存在宿主基因型-环境互作效应。综上，本研究表明营养状况可影响感染耐受能力，且不同宿主基因型对营养不良的感染耐受敏感性存在差异。