Susceptibility to Poliomyelitis Virus of HeLa Cells Adapted to Growth in Horse Serum Medium

Abstract

Discussion and Conclusions

Human serum is not readily obtainable in large volumes from a uniform source for use in tissue culture. Furthermore, the possible presence of specific antibodies introduces further difficulties in the use of cells grown in human serum media when working with certain human viruses. The adaptation of HeLa cells to growth in horse serum media eliminates these difficulties.

It would appear from these experiments that HeLa cells adapted to growth in the presence of horse serum rather than in media containing human serum are quite susceptible to the cytopathogenic effect of all three types of poliomyelitis virus, and are as efficient in producing virus as the HeLa cells grown in the human serum. They likewise seem to be as efficient in their ability to demonstrate the presence of poliomyelitis virus in human stool suspensions. Prliminary evidence indicates that this subline of HeLa cell grown in mass suspended cultures is also capable of supporting the growth of poliomyelitis virus.