Mechanisms of net chloride secretion during rotavirus diarrhea in young rabbits: do intestinal villi secrete chloride?

Rotaviral diarrheal illness is one of the most common infectious diseases in children worldwide, but our understanding of its pathophysiology is limited. This study examines whether the enhanced net chloride secretion during rotavirus infection in young rabbits may occur as a result of hypersecretion in crypt cells that would exceed the substantial Cl(-) reabsorption observed in villi. By using a rapid filtration technique, we evaluated transport of (36)Cl and D-(14)C glucose across brush border membrane (BBM) vesicles purified from villus tip and crypt cells isolated in parallel from the entire small intestine. Rotavirus infection impaired SGLT1-mediated Na(+)-D-glucose symport activity in both villus and crypt cell BBM, hence contributing to the massive water loss along the cryptvillus axis. In the same BBM preparations, rotavirus failed to stimulate the Cl(-) transport activities (Cl(-)/H(+) symport, Cl(-)/anion exchange and voltage-activated Cl(-) conductance) at the crypt level, but not at the villus level, questioning, therefore, the origin of net chloride secretion. We propose that the chloride carrier might function in both normal (absorption) and reversed (secretion) modes in villi, depending on the direction of the chloride electrochemical gradient resulting from rotavirus infection, agreeing with our results that rotavirus accelerated both Cl(-) influx and Cl(-) efflux rates across villi BBM.