Studies on the Cultivation of Poliomyelitis Viruses in Tissue Culture

Abstract

Summary: Evidence has been presented that the three prototype strains of poliomyelitis virus (Brunhilde, Lansing and Leon) can be propagated without difficulty in roller cultures of a variety of human tissues. They include embryonic skin-muscle and fascia, mature uterus and kidney. These three types of tissue have in our hands proved most useful, although multiplication of the Lansing strain occurs readily in cultures of mature human testis and prepuce. The Leon and Lansing viruses have likewise been cultivated in roller-tube cultures of kidney tissue from rhesus monkeys and the Lansing strain, in confirmation of the results of other investigators, in cultures of the testicular tissue of this species. The quantities of virus entering the fluid phase of the cultures approaches those encountered in the tissues of susceptible animals infected with these agents. In cultures composed of tissues from certain other mammalian species, embryonic and mature, no indication of viral multiplication has been observed. The procedures employed for the propagation of these agents in human tissues have been described in detail and the effect of certain modifications in technique on the growth of the virus has been determined. The advantages and disadvantages of the roller culture as compared with the suspended cell culture for the propagation of poliomyelitis viruses have been discussed and it is concluded that for most purposes the former is to be preferred.