Comparative in Vitro Titrations of Herpes Simplex Virus in Cells Derived from Normal Uterine Cervix and from Cervical Cancer.

Abstract

Sero-epidemiologic investigations showed a significant association between carcinoma of the cervix uteri and previous infections of the female genital tract with subtype 2, or genital, Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-2) (ref. 3, 13, 14, 16). This association could be due to a carcinogenic, or co-carcinogenic effect of HSV (ref. 6 and 17), or else to a preferential viral growth in tumoral or transformed cells as against normal cells. To test the latter hypothesis we cultured in vitro cells from normal cervix and from cervical cancer, and assayed HSV-2 (and also HSV-1, or facial, and the MP mutant of HSV-1: ref. 9, 12) in our cell cultures as well as in the human HEp-2 cell line. Equivalent viral yields (results not reported in detail), equivalent numbers of viral plaques (table 1) and similar plaque morphology (fig.8) and intracellular ecp (fig.7) were observed in our cell cultures and in HEp-2 cells. Thus, a preferential viral growth in tumoral cells is not apparent.