Effect of cell physiological state on infection by rat virus.

Infection by rat virus has been studied in cultures of rat embryo cells to evaluate the Margolis-Kilham hypothesis that the virus preferentially infects tissues with actively dividing cells. An enhancement of infection was seen in cultures infected 10 hr after fresh medium was added as compared to infection of stationary cultures (infected before addition of fresh medium). Since addition of fresh medium stimulates deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis, the number of cells per culture synthesizing DNA at the time of infection was compared with the proportion of cells which synthesized viral protein. Cells were infected before the medium change and 10 or 24 hr after the medium change and were pulse-labeled with (3)H-thymidine at the time virus was added. The cells were allowed to initiate viral protein synthesis before they were fixed and stained with fluorescein-conjugated anti-rat virus serum. Fluorescence microscopy permitted both labels to be counted simultaneouly and showed that the greatest proportion of cells synthesizing viral protein were those which had incorporated (3)H-thymidine at the time of infection.