title: Persistence of visna virus in cultured ferret brain cortex and fibroblasts.
abstract: Cerebral cortex tissue fragments from newborn ferrets have been cultured in vitro and, when exposed to visna virus, failed to exhibit a cytopathic effect but retained the genome of the virus in a quiescent state for 46 d before synthesizing plaque-forming virus for the subsequent 26 d. In contrast, infection of an established line of cells derived from a ferret's brain with visna virus resulted in the formation of the polykaryocytes typically produced by this virus and a limited synthesis of plaque-forming virus. Ferret cerebral cortex cultures may be suitable in vitro hosts for studies to define the virus-host interactions that result in virus-induced demyelination.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000382:microbiology*; D005289:Ferrets; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000382:microbiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000382:microbiology; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D010948:Viral Plaque Assay; D014790:Visna-maedi virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*