A CVB 3 infection in mice exhibits different clinical phenotypes depending on the mouse strain. Some mouse strains e.g. DBA/2 develop a severe myocarditis wheres in other strains e.g. C57/Bl6 only minor inflammation is seen.
Coxakievirus B and adenovirus share a common cell surface receptor- coxsackievirus-adenovirus-receptor (CAR).
We examined wether the expression of CAR plays a role in the susceptibility of different mouse strains towards a CVB3 induced myocarditis.