Growth of measles virus in continuous cell lines derived from the nervous tissues of human and rat.

Growth of two measles virus strains, the TYCSA and CAM, was compared in three continuous cell lines derived from the nervous tissues, human neuroblastoma IMR-32, human glioma 118MGC, and rat glioma C-6. The two human neural cells were shown to support the growth of both measles virus strains as efficiently as in the non-neural Vero cells. Different types of cytopathic effect (CPE) between the two virus strains were noticed in IMR-32 cells; the CAM strain induced strand-forming type CPE and the TYCSA strain giant-cell type CPE. As a difference of growth pattern between IMR-32 and 118MGC cells, virus antigen was demonstrated in both the nucleus and cytoplasm of 118MGC cells whereas virus antigen was present only in the cytoplasm of IMR-32 cells. In contrast to the productive infection in human neural cells, growth of both virus strains was restricted in rat glioma C-6 cells without showing CPE although the prolonged presence of virus antigens was demonstrated by the immunofluorescent technique.