Autoradiographic method for detection of lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus-infected cells in primary mouse macrophage cultures

Abstract

Peritoneal cells from starch-injected Swiss mice were propagated in plastic petri dishes and on cover slips in a mouse [fibroblast] L-cell-conditioned medium for 12-24 h and then infected with various multiplicities of lactate dehydrogenase-elevating virus (LDV). Over 95% of the cells in these cultures phagocytosed latex particles and were, therefore, considered macrophages. Infected and mock-infected macrophage cultures were supplemented with [3H]uridine at various times after infection and with actinomycin D 30 min before addition of the [3H]uridine. After 1 or 2 h of further incubation, plate cultures were analyzed for LDV-specific RNA, and cover slip cultures were investigated by autoradiography. Other cultures were labeled in the absence of actinomycin D, and the culture fluid was analyzed for labeled LDV. There was a good correlation between the production of LDV-specific RNA and LDV and the number of heavily labeled cells in these cultures. The labeled cells, therefore, were equated with productively infected cells. Only a maximum of .apprx. 20% of the macrophages became heavily labeled, regardless of the multiplicity of infection or the time after infection at which the cells were exposed to [3H]uridine. Only background labeling was observed in the remainder of the cells and in mock-infected cells treated with actinomycin D. The highest proportion of labeled cells was observed when the cells were infected with a multiplicity of infection of .apprx. 2000 mouse infectious units/cell and labeled from 6-8 h after infection. Thereafter, the proportion of productively infected cells decreased progressively, concomitant with a decrease in the amounts of viral-specific RNA and of LDV produced by the cultures. The majority of the macrophages in primary macrophage cultures apparently do not support LDV replication. Their nonpermissiveness may depend on the physiological state of the cells or reflect the presence of subpopulations of macrophages, but no morphological differences between productively infected and uninfected cells were detectable.