Human Tissue Culture Studies of Non-gonococcal Urethritis

Abstract

Sixteen selected patients with non-gonococcal urethritis of venereal origin were investigated in an effort to isolate an etiologic virus. Urethral discharge washings were inoculated into HeLa cell cultures. There was no evidence of any cytopatho-genic change suggesting the presence of a virus. The author points out that the negative findings do not exclude the possibility that a virus is present in non-gonococcal urethritis and suggests further investigation using different cell types and varying experimental conditions.