Several viruses antigenically indistinguishable from measles virus have been isolated from the brains of patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a progressive neuropathy of children, by co-cultivation of brain cells with other cell types (Horta-Barbosa et al. 1969a; Payne, Baublis & Itabashi, 1969). The SSPE-1 virus isolated by Horta-Barbosa et al. (1969b) was obtained as second passage fluids from Dr Wolfgang Zeman, Indiana University Medical Center. In our laboratory, SSPE-1 virus (mantooth strain) was adapted to the brains of newborn hamsters by four pairs of alternate passages in hamster brain and monkey cell tissue culture (Byington, Castro & Burnstein, 1970). This communication presents some of the characteristics of the hamster-brain-adapted (HBS) virus in cell culture.
Stock virus was the 10th passage from the original brain isolate. It was prepared by intracerebral inoculation of neonatal hamsters with 0.02 ml. of HBS virus; affected brains were harvested at 96 hr, when pronounced neurological signs were evident.
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