Abstract
Background: Viral infection of SARS-Cov-2 causes severe
pathogenesis due to vasculitis and Kawasaki disease-like
symptoms. We have demonstrated the efficacy of a drug
seed VasSF, a recombinant single-chain Fv of IgG, using
vasculitis model SCG/Kj mice. However, it is a problem
using the SCG/Kj mice as they have low reproductive
performance due to disease symptoms.
Objective: To improve the performance, we tested if the
VasSF treatment could increase the pup production in SCG/
Kj mice.
Methods: SCG/Kj female mice (n=7) were treated with
VasSF. After the treatment, the females were caged
with SCG/Kj males. Pup production of the females was
compared with that of females without VasSF treatment
(n=19). The effect of VasSF on the females was also assayed
by the urinary protein and occult blood scores.
Results: VasSF increased the number of deliveries in
SCG/Kj females, but not the litter size or pregnancy rate.
The increase in the number of litters was slightly related to
low urinary protein score, but not to urinary occult blood
score.
Conclusions: VasSF treatment increased the number of
pup deliveries per female in SCG/Kj mice, maybe due to
the suppression of vasculitis/nephritis progression. With
efficient reproduction by VasSF, further use of SCG/Kj mice
can be expected in vasculitis/nephritis research.
