Abstract
Evidence is fast accumulating that we must recognize a special group of salivary gland viruses. All of them have been discovered by chance. They are so benign that attention was not directed to them by distinctive clinical symptoms. What attracted notice was the extraordinary hypertrophy of certain acinous, or duct, cells accompanied by the formation in their nuclei of inclusions resembling those caused by viruses.
The first inclusion-laden cells were reported under the heading of “protozoan-like bodies” in the parotids of 2 infants by Ribbert 1 and in the submaxillary glands of guinea pigs by Jackson. 2 Credit is due to Goodpasture and Talbot 3 for recognizing the close resemblance between the bodies in humans and guinea pigs and for pointing out the similarity of both to the intranuclear inclusions described by Tyzzer 4 in varicella. Lipschütz 5 then rediscovered the intranuclear inclusions in herpes admirably described and illustrated by Kopytowski, 6 and emphasized the great importance of these bodies in “inclusion diseases” in general. But Kuttner and Cole 7 and Kuttner 8 led in the demonstration that the inclusions in guinea pigs are actually caused by a virus. Investigators, while examining the salivary glands of other animals, have been on the lookout for nuclear inclusions with the result that they have been reported in rats, 9 moles, 10 , 11 mice 12 and hamsters. 13 Finally Kuttner and Wang 13 have proved that the intranuclear inclusions in hamsters, mice and wild rats are caused by a virus which is very similar to the submaxillary gland virus of guinea pigs.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.