Uptake of adenovirus by intestinal absorptive cells of the suckling rat. II. The neonatal jejunum

Abstract

Abstract Histological and ultrastructural observations of adenovirus‐infused jejunal loops revealed virus particles in small apical tubules and in underlying vacuoles and lysosome‐like bodies. Tissue selected from loops maintained for five and ten minutes disclosed virions largely within the intestinal lumen and in sparse tubular profiles beneath the microvilli. Jejunal preparations of longer duration disclosed increasing numbers of virus particles in small and large lysosome‐like bodies above the nucleus. In no instance were virions apparent free within the cytoplasm or nucleus and none was observed elsewhere in the mucosa. It is concluded, therefore, that the jejunal absorptive cell behaves like its ileal counterpart in absorbing and sequestering adenovirus particles in intracytoplasmic lysosomal organelles. It is further proposed that this behavior might serve a protective role during the vulnerable period of immunologic immaturity in the neonatal mammal.