Viral Infection and Interferon in Cell Cultures Aged in Vitro

Abstract

It is well known that host age often acts as a decisive factor determining the course of illness and the immunological response to viral infections in man and animals (1). Medical praxis knows foudroyant infections in newbornes which are caused by viruses harmless for adults. Experimental virology offers many instances when viruses kill newborns animals, remaining non-pathogenic for adults of same species. On the other hand, activation of latent virus infections in ageing (2) is presumed while searching for the etiology of various chronic and slow virus infections. The problem of viral oncogenesis is a special but related chapter. Besides specific antibody response, also unspecific cellular immunity mechanisms, as induced in cells by viral infection, participate apparently in these phenomena. Therefore, a model of aged cells cultivated in vitro and susceptible to viral infection seems to be useful for virology.