Rotavirus infection induces cytoskeleton disorganization in human intestinal epithelial cells: Implication of an increase in intracellular calcium concentration

Rotavirus infection is the most common cause of severe infantile gastroente ritis worldwide. In vivo, rotavirus exhibits a marked tropism for the diffe rentiated enterocytes of the intestinal epithelium. In vitro, differentiate d and undifferentiated intestinal cells can be infected. We observed that r otavirus infection of the human intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells induces cytoskeleton alterations as a function of cell differentiation. The vimenti n network disorganization detected in undifferentiated Caco-2 cells was not found in fully differentiated cells. In contrast, differentiated Caco-2 ce lls presented Ca2+-dependent microtubule disassembly and Ca2+-independent c ytokeratin 18 rearrangement, which both require viral replication. We propo se that these structural alterations could represent the first manifestatio ns of rotavirus-infected enterocyte injury leading to functional perturbati ons and then to diarrhea.