%0 Journal Article %A Ritter, Marcus %A Bouloy, Michèle %A Vialat, Pierre %A Janzen, Christian %A Haller, Otto %A Frese, Michael %T Resistance to Rift Valley fever virus in Rattus norvegicus: genetic variability within certain ‘inbred’ strains %D 2000 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 81 %N 11 %P 2683-2688 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-81-11-2683 %I Microbiology Society, %X Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is the causative agent of Rift Valley fever, a widespread disease of domestic animals and humans in sub-Saharan Africa. Laboratory rats have frequently been used as an animal model for studying the pathogenesis of Rift Valley fever. It is shown here that Lewis rats (LEW/mol) are susceptible to infection with RVFV, whereas Wistar–Furth (WF/mol) rats are resistant to RVFV infection. LEW/mol rats developed acute hepatitis and died after infection with RVFV strain ZH548, whereas WF/mol rats survived the infection. Cross-breeding of resistant WF/mol rats with susceptible LEW/mol rats demonstrated that resistance is segregated as a single dominant gene. Primary hepatocytes but not glial cells from WF/mol rats showed the resistant phenotype in cell culture, indicating that resistance was cell type-specific. Moreover, when cultured hepatocytes were stimulated with interferon (IFN) type I there was no indication of a regulatory role of IFN in the RVFV-resistance gene expression in WF/mol rats. Interestingly, previous reports have shown that LEW rats from a different breeding stock (LEW/mai) are resistant to RVFV infections, whereas WF/mai rats are susceptible. Thus, inbred rat strains seem to differ in virus susceptibility depending on their breeding histories. A better genetic characterization of inbred rat strains and a revision in nomenclature is needed to improve animal experimentation in the future. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-81-11-2683