Immunodiffusion studies of EB virus (herpes-type virus)-infected and-uninfected hemic cell lines.

Abstract

AbstractImmunodiffusion testing of cellular antigen extracts from herpes‐type virus (HTV, EBV)‐infected and ‐uninfected cell cultures is described. The techniques, as used previously in seroepidemiologic studies, are known to be sensitive and comparable to other immunological methods for testing EBV antigen‐antibody reactions. They also appear to be virus‐specific, but possess the unique advantages of immunodiffusion resolution. Antigen preparations from four EBV‐infected cell lines, derived from different tissues, different diseases and different continents, demonstrated three identical antigenic components with selected reactive sera, and a fifth contained at least one of these. These cell lines also demonstrate the greatest number of virus‐infected cells by immunofluorescence or electron microscopy. Preparations from nine other less infected or uninfected cell lines and eight primary tissue specimens did not react in immunodiffusion or, in at least two instances, contained different antigenic components than the previous cell lines. The latter observation suggests there are other precipitating antibody‐antigen systems in these cell lines. Other information concerning the properties of the reactive components of the preparations is presented. By these immunodiffusion methods, herpes‐type viruses isolated from different sources appear to be immunologically identical.