Cultivation of filoviruses

Abstract

During the emergence of MARV in 1967, attempts to propagate virus in cell culture or in embryonated chicken eggs were unsuccessful [1689, 2333, 2337, 2338]. However, the Henle-Koch postulates were fulfilled in experiments, and the infectious nature of this newly recognized disease was established [2325, 2335]. BHK (baby hamster kidney) cells underwent morphological changes upon exposure to clarified suspensions of liver or spleen from experimentally infected animals. Round to oval basophilic inclusion bodies with a clear halo were reported to have accumulated within the cells 13-16 days after infection. These appeared as red inclusion bodies after staining with phloxintartrazine, and varied in morphology and size. The slow growth of the agent in primary cultures and the pattern of inclusionbody development led investigators to suspect that the etiological agent of MVD was an intracellular organism, such as a rickettsia or ‘bedsonia’ (microorganisms now reclassified within the bacterial order Chlamydiales) [1613, 2949].