Effect of Glucose on the Growth of Influenza Virus in Deëmbryonated Eggs and Tissue Cultures

Abstract

Summary When deprived of glucose, chick embryo tissues infected with influenza virus produced relatively small increments in hemagglutinin and infective virus. This effect of glucose deprivation could be reversed by the addition of glucose to deëmbryonated eggs at 48 hours and to tissue cultures as late as 5 days after infection. In tissue cultures deprived of glucose, oxygen consumption was 60 to 70% of the controls with glucose and deterioration of epithelium was observed in explants after depletion periods longer than four days. Bernkopf's observations on production from concentrated virus inocula of hemagglutinin in the absence of an increase in infective virus were confirmed in deëmbryonated eggs and in tissue cultures. Tissue cultures have been modified, without the use of complex enrichment, to produce virus yields equivalent to those obtained in the deëmbryonated egg.