Use of Kieselguhr to increase Cell Production for Animal Virus Investigations

Abstract

ONE of the difficulties involved in elucidating the structure of an animal virus is to produce sufficient virus for investigation. Wheatley¹ has shown that the yield of cells given by mice inoculated with Ehrlich ascites tumour could be increased by previous injection of a suspension of kieselguhr. Krebs ascites tumour cells, propagated in mice, can later be used for growing virus in vitro². We show that kieselguhr can also be used to increase the yield of these cells, and furthermore, the latter resemble those produced in the conventional way in their response to virus infection. A simple method is thus available to provide larger quantities of cells for later virus investigations.