Studies on the Red Cell and Antibody-Reactive Sites of the Parvovirus H-1: Effect of Fixatives 1

Abstract

Summary

Treatment of the Parvovirus, H-1, with the fixatives formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde have shown that:

1. Formaldehyde, even at 4% (1.33 M), had no effect on the red cell or antibody-binding sites of the virus. The infectivity of such samples, however, was abolished, indicating either a direct interaction with the DNA and/or that uncoating of the treated virions is impaired.

2. Glutaraldehyde at 0.25 and 0.5% (0.025 and 0.05 M) did not damage the HA or antigenicity, but further increases in bound glutaraldehyde lowered the HA and simultaneously, as determined by immunogel diffusion and SDS-electrophoresis, the ability of the virions to bind anti-H-1 globulin. Glutaraldehyde was as effective as formaldehyde in destroying H-1 infectivity.

3. The loss of HA activity of treated H-1 is dependent upon the temperature of the reaction.

4. Formaldehyde, by virtue of its lack of effect on H-1 HA activity and antigenicity at concentrations permitting reasonable preservation of morphology may be the fixative of choice for immunoelectron microscopy of H-1-infected cells.

The authors thank Drs. K. A. O. Ellem and S. L. Rhode for their helpful discussion and M. Suzanne Hopkins, George Edick, and John Reed for their excellent technical assistance.