Properties in Cell Culture of a Hamster Brain-adapted Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis Virus

Abstract

Several viruses antigenically indistinguishable from measles virus have been isolated from the brains of patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a progressive neuropathy of children, by co-cultivation of brain cells with other cell types (Horta-Barbosa et al. 1969a; Payne, Baublis & Itabashi, 1969). The SSPE-1 virus isolated by Horta-Barbosa et al. (1969b) was obtained as second passage fluids from Dr Wolfgang Zeman, Indiana University Medical Center. In our laboratory, SSPE-1 virus (mantooth strain) was adapted to the brains of newborn hamsters by four pairs of alternate passages in hamster brain and monkey cell tissue culture (Byington, Castro & Burnstein, 1970). This communication presents some of the characteristics of the hamster-brain-adapted (HBS) virus in cell culture.