Comparative Studies of Hepatitis "Candidate" Agents and Parvovirus in Detrolt-6 Cell Cultures

Abstract

The recovery of an agent (Kirk virus) in Detroit-6 cells from acute-phase plasma of a volunteer who developed hepatitis after ingestion of human serum containing the virus of hepatitis A has caused renewed interest in this cell line for recovery of hepatitis “candidate” agents. In recent studies with a clone of Detroit-6 cells, Kirk virus was compared with a heat-stable virus (HS-3) recovered after serial passage from cultures of human-embryonic-lung cells originally inoculated with acutephase stool from a child with hepatitis A and with selected parvoviruses. Kirk and HS-3 viruses are antigenically similar and closely related to the H-3 parvovirus. Antibody to Kirk virus was found in 16 of 22 normal rat sera but not in convalescent-phase sera from patients with hepatitis A. Agents from acute-phase sera of such patients were not recovered in Detroit-6 cells. The findings indicate that both Kirk and HS-3 viruses belong to the parvovirus group and are not etiologically related to hepatitis A. It is also likely that currently studied Detroit-6 cell clones are no longer susceptible to the virus of hepatitis A.