COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON DEVELOPMENT OF RABIES VIRUS IN DIFFERENT HOST CELLS

The HEP Flury strain of rabies virus, which had been adapted to chick embryo fibroblast monolayers, was utilized for comparative studies of viral morphogenesis in cultured cells and brain tissues. It was found that, in the former case, numerous viruses were formed by a budding process from the cell surface, whereas it was completely restricted to the intracytoplasmic membranes closely associated with the characteristic matrix in neurons. These findings suggest that the site of the rabies virus assembly is not exclusively within the intracytoplasmic membranous system, but varies, depending on different combinations of virus and host cell. It was noted that the virulence as well as cytopathological change in baby mice did not vary through the 27th-passage level in chick embryo fibroblasts. © 1969.