Human Rotavirus Type 2: Cultivation in vitro

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 207; no. 4427; pp. 189 - 191
• Main Authors: Wyatt, Richard G., James, Walter D., Bohl, Edward H., Theil, Kenneth W., Saif, Linda J., Kalica, Anthony R., Greenberg, Harry B., Kapikian, Albert Z., Chanock, Robert M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 11-01-1980
• Subjects: Animals; Antigens, Viral - analysis; Cells, Cultured; Cultured cells; Diarrhea, Infantile - microbiology; Gastrointestinal secretions; Germ-Free Life; Gnotobiotics; Haplorhini; Humans; Infant; Infections; Kidney cells; RNA; RNA Viruses - growth & development; Rotavirus; Rotavirus - growth & development; Rotavirus - immunology; Swine; Ungulates; Viruses
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.6243190

A strain of type 2 human rotavirus (Wa) was grown to relatively high titer through 14 passages in primary cultures of African green monkey kidney (AGMK) cells. This passage series was initiated with virus that had been passaged 11 times serially in newborn gnotobiotic piglets. In contrast, virus present in the stool of patient Wa as well as virus from the first, second, or third passage in piglets could not be propagated successfully in African green monkey kidney cells. Prior to each passage in cell culture, the virus was treated with trypsin and the inoculated cultures were centrifuged at low speed. Cultivation of a type 2 human rotavirus should aid attempts to characterize this virus and to develop a means of immunoprophylaxis for a serious diarrheal disease of human infants.