Establishment and characterization of a carrier cell culture producing high titres of polyoma JC virus.
This report concerns a carrier cell culture (designated JCI) infected persistently with JC virus (JCV). Immunostaining with an anti-JCV antiserum revealed that JCI was a carrier culture in which only a small fraction of the cells (approximately 1.5%) produced the virus. The JCV titre was increased strikingly by incubating confluent JCI cells for 4-6 days in medium containing a low concentration of fetal bovine serum (2%). Viral genomes cloned from the persistently infected JCI cells were heterogeneous with respect to size, but most clones had an alteration of the same regulatory region (designated CR-JCI). Transfection experiments with a chimeric JCV DNA (Mad-1/CR-JCI), in which the regulatory region was CR-JCI and the other region was derived from an infectious JCV (Mad-1) DNA, showed that CR-JCI was less efficient in inducing viral growth than the regulatory regions of IMR-32-adapted JCVs. The transfected cells could be readily subcultured, and they continued to produce JCV. It is concluded that a decrease in the activity of the JCV regulatory region is of importance for the maintenance of the carrier state of JCI cells.
Nukuzuma
S
S
Department of Pathology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Yogo
Y
Y
Guo
J
J
Nukuzuma
C
C
Itoh
S
S
Shinohara
T
T
Nagashima
K
K
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002417:Cattle; D003470:Culture Media; D004279:DNA, Viral; D006801:Humans; D007577:JC Virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000821:virology; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D014162:Transfection; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D003470:Culture Media; D004279:DNA, Viral; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine