STUDY OF POLIOVIRUS INFECTION OF HUMAN AND MONKEY CELLS BY INDIRECT IMMUNOFERRITIN TECHNIQUE

Primary human amnion, human chorion, and human embryonic kidney, continuous lines of human amnion, human HEp-2, and HeLa, and continuous line monkey BS-C-1 cells were infected with poliovirus type 1, Brunhilde strain at a multiplicity of 20-200 PFU/cell. After aldehyde fixation and digitonin permeabilization, cells were reacted with rabbit antipoliovirus serum followed by ferritin-labeled goat antirabbit globulin. Full and empty particles, ferritin coated by this technique and presumed to represent complete and incomplete progeny virus, were found 3 or more hours after infection: (a) free in the extracellular medium, (b) emerging at the plasma membrane by way of a tubulovacuolar excretory system, (c) free in the cytoplasm near the plasma membrane and among clusters of vesicles, and (d) aligned on fibrils, in the cytoplasm and in cytoplasmic blebs. Fibrils, vesicles, and the smooth endoplasmic reticulum were progressively more heavily coated with ferritin over the 3-6-period of poliovirus protein production, an observation interpreted as demonstrating local accumulations of free viral protein. © 1969.