Persistence of Herpes Simplex Virus in HeLa Cells

Abstract

PERSISTENCE of herpes virus in cells cultured in vitro might provide a suitable model for investigating the phenomenon of latent herpes infection in humans. During a study on the interaction between herpes virus and HeLa cells, it was observed that an extensive cytopathic effect eventually resulted from inoculation of a monolayer culture with the HFEM strain of herpes virus^1,2. A few isolated cells sometimes survived, however, and if growth medium containing antiviral serum was added, colonies grew from these surviving cells, leading eventually to a large population. These recovered cells were apparently healthy and grew as well as the original HeLa cells: there were no gross morphological differences such as those described by Vogt and Dulbecco³, who studied cells recovered after poliomyelitis infection.