Histopathological images dataset of virus-induced pulmonary changes in HCoV-229E-infected BALB/c mice

Description

Human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) is an alphacoronavirus that typically causes mild respiratory illness but can be severe in vulnerable individuals. Due to the absence of the human aminopeptidase-N (hAPN) receptor, BALB/c mice are not naturally permissive to productive 229E replication. This study assesses the immunogenicity of HCoV-229E in BALB/c mice and investigates how different routes of infection influence antibody responses. Mice were inoculated intranasally, intraperitoneally, or intramuscularly, with mock animals as controls. Here, we report a histopathological dataset that includes lung tissue sections from BALB/c mice stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and Masson’s Trichrome (MT) to assess microscopic changes following HCoV-229E infection. H&E staining was used to evaluate cellular infiltration, tissue architecture, and inflammation, which was evident in infected mice compared to mock. While MT staining was utilised to examine collagen deposition and fibrosis-related changes, which are commonly observed in severe coronavirus infections such as SARS-CoV-2. Although collagen deposition was observed in infected animals, no significant difference was detected. The dataset is organized into a total of seven folders to facilitate easy navigation and review, organized under a primary folder named 229E, which serves as the main directory. This folder contains two subfolders corresponding to the staining methods: H&E and Masson’s Trichrome (MT). The H&E-stained images are grouped into two subfolders: one for infected samples and one for mock controls. The infected H&E subfolder includes 50 images, while the mock H&E subfolder contains 43 images. Similarly, Masson’s Trichrome (MT)-stained images are organized, which include two subfolders corresponding to infected and mock samples. The MT-infected subfolder comprises 33 images, and the MT-mock subfolder contains 34 images. This structured organization allows reviewers to readily identify and access images based on staining method.

Steps to reproduce

BALB/c/c mice were inoculated with HCoV-229E through the intraperitoneal (IP) route. For acquiring the data, i.e. histopathological images, the whole lung was harvested from the mice study was conducted in accordance with ethical guidelines for animal research in the small animal facility of THSTI. The harvested lung was immediately fixed in 4% buffered formalin solution for 48 hours, which was then dehydrated in a series of different concentrations, followed by clearing in xylene and embedding in paraffin wax. The embedded tissue section was then sectioned using a microtome of thickness 3 µm on glass slides, followed by deparaffinization and staining using Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Masson’s Trichrome (MT) using standard protocol, mounted using mounting media DPX (Dibutylphthalate Polystyrene Xylene) and examined under Nikon Eclipse Ti microscope. Images were captured using a fitted camera with a Nikon Eclipse Ti microscope. Images were captured at 20x magnification and 3 × 3 stitched fields to represent larger areas of lung tissue. Immune cell infiltration is a key indicator of inflammatory host response during viral exposure, which is examined in H&E staining, while vascular alterations like thrombus formation, which may indicate localized immune-mediated response observed by MT staining. As the BALB/c mice model lacks the hAPN receptor required for HCoV-229E replication, therefore observed lung pathophysiology is interpreted as immune or exposure-associated effects rather than virus-driven cytopathic pathology. Non-susceptible HCoV-229E exposure in BALB/c mice primarily elicits immune-mediated pulmonary responses, in contrast to the mice-adapted SARS-CoV-2 model that exhibits productive replication and severe lung injury. These datasets may serve as informative to set up baseline immunological and tissue-level responses associated with HCoV-229E exposure, and also meant to serve as a reference resource for comparison analysis, hypothesis designing, and methodology validation in studies exploring coronavirus antigen delivery, immune activation, and vaccine-related responses in non-permissive animal models.

Institutions

• Translational Health Science and Technology Institute

Categories

Funders

• Translational Research Program Grant

  Grant ID: BT/PR30159/MED/15/188/2018
• Ind-CEPI

  Grant ID: BT/MB/CEPI/2016
• THSTI Core (Intramural)

  Grant ID: P189, P417, P542, P548 & T001
• The ICMR-National One Health Mission

  Grant ID: ICMR/DHR/NOHM/SN ID-28/2025/04/14
• ICMR-National One Health Mission

  Grant ID: ICMR/DHR/NOHM/SN ID-29/2025/04/15

Licence