Abstract
Summary
The cutaneous papilloma of domestic rabbit induced by the Shope papilloma virus was cultured in vitro and a continuously growing cell line, designated as SP-8, was established. Among the two types of cells, i.e., polygonal and columnar cells, which grew in the primary culture and which both showed the presence of SPV antigen by immunofluorescence as previously reported, the latter type (columnar cells) grew predominately even in the first subcultivation and subsequently composed the main cellular constituent of the SP-8 cell line. The morphological feature of the SP-8 cells was fibroblast-like in appearance. By inoculation into rabbits, however, the cells were occasionally observed to form epithelial arrangements. The modal number of chromosomes in SP-8 cells was found to be 44 and those cells had a characteristic male rabbit karyotype which showed no difference in appearance. Deviation of chromosome numbers from the modal number was observed. The incidence of tetraploid cells at the twentieth passage was higher than in the earlier passages. Although the SP-8 cells exhibited neither specific fluorescence for SPV antigen nor elevated arginase activity, the possibility of persisting viral genome in these cells was discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.