Press information

August 09, 2006

The Ljungan virus is believed to cause fetal deaths and malformation

Diabetes among pregnant women is a known risk factor for birth defects and fetal death, yet the fundamental cause for these diseases is most often unknown. The Swedish research company Apodemus has shown that animals that carry the Ljungan virus not only develop diabetes but that offspring also suffer from malformation and intrauterine deaths. The results are published in the journal Birth Defect Research. Scientists are currently investigating whether Ljungan virus causes intrauterine fetal deaths in human.

This new study shows that mice that are infected with the Ljungan virus during pregnancy and simultaneously subjected to stress suffer deformed offspring and stillbirths. Apodemus is presently investigating, in cooperation with Karolinska Institutet, whether women that are afflicted with fetal deformation or fetal death before birth are carriers of the Ljungan virus.

“The prevalent theory is that malformation and intrauterine deaths may result as a sequel of diabetes. If affected women are carriers of the Ljungan virus this theory must be reconsidered. In that case diabetes and intrauterine fetal deaths and malformation is probably caused by the same viral infection”, says professor Bo Niklasson, research director of Apodemus.

Apodemus has previously shown that the Ljungan virus, in combination with stress, causes diabetes and myocarditis in laboratory mice. The same connection has hence been established with several species of rodent that live in the wild.

“The work of Apodemus on the Ljungan virus is getting ever more intriguing. Biomedical researchers have long sought genetic explanations for these diseases. In addition to genetics, an environmental component is expected to be important in disease development. The Ljungan virus may be that environmental factor”, says William Klitz, senior researcher at the University of California, Berkeley USA.

Apodemus’ research was initiated with the observation that the population level of rodents in nature covaries with the number of new cases of diabetes among humans in the same area. Subsequently, Apodemus discovered the Ljungan virus in voles and other small rodents from both Europe and America. Apodemus’ hypothesis is that the Ljungan virus is transferred from animals to humans and that this causes diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

For further information please contact:

Bo Niklasson, MD, professor and Research Director, Apodemus AB
Telephone: +46 708 23 23 23

William Klitz, senior researcher at the University of California, Berkley USA
Telephone: +510 643-1594

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The research company Apodemus AB hypothesise that several chronic diseases may be caused by a virus, the Ljungan virus, which is transmitted from animals to humans. The Ljungan virus is carried by bank voles, the most common mammal in Scandinavia.