Rotavirus-specific proteins are detected in murine macrophages in both intestinal and extraintestinal lymphoid tissues.

Rotaviruses replicate in mature, villous epithelial cells of the mammalian small intestine. Although rotavirus has not been detected in plasma of infants with rotavirus-induced gastroenteritis, rotavirus particles and rotavirus genomic RNA have been detected in extraintestinal sites (e.g. cerebrospinal fluid). Using a murine rotavirus strain well adapted to growth in the small intestines of suckling mice, we found that macrophages (and to a lesser extent B cells) in gut-associated lymphoid tissue contained rotavirus-specific proteins, and that these antigen-containing cells travelled to sites distant to the intestine. Copyright 1998 Academic Press Limited.