SummaryThree cytopathic rotavirus strains were isolated in MA104 cells from faecal specimens of pediatric patients with acute gastroenteritis. Pre-treatment of virus with trypsin and incorporation of a small amount of trypsin in maintenance medium were important for establishment of the strains in these cells. The isolates were antigenically closely related with strain Wa of human rotavirus and had some antigenic relationship with strain Lincoln of bovine rotavirus. , Numerous attempts to propagate human rotaviruses to high titer in cultured cells have failed (1--3, 7, 8, 1t). Recently, WYATT et al. (12) adapted type 2 human rotavirus (strain Wa) to grow to relatively high titer in primary cultures of African green monkey kidney cells after 11 passages in newborn gnotobiotic piglets. In the present study we isolated 3 strains of human rotavirus in cultures of MA 104 cells, a stable cell line derived from embryonic rhesus monkey kidney.Faecal specimens were obtained from pediatric patients who had whitish, watery diarrhea, vomiting and slight fever and recovered in 3 to 5 days. The faecal specimens were collected the day after the onset of the disease and stored at --80°C until use. All the specimens were shown by electron microscopy to contain rotavirus particles when examined by the method described previously (9).Cultures of MA104 cells were prepared in 110 × 10 m m tubes. The growth medium used was Eagle's minimum essential medium (MEM) containing 10 per cent tryptose phosphate broth (TPB) (Difco), 10 per cent calf serum, 100 units/ml penicillin, 100 ~g/ml streptomycin and t ~g/mI fungizone, and the maintenance medium (MM) was MEM containing 10 per cent TPB, 0.5 per cent sodium glut,-0304-8608/81/0069/0155/$ 01.20

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A total of 322 single and paired serum samples from children (newborn to 10 years old), young adults (18 to 20 years old), pregnant women and their cord serum samples, and elderly people (more than 70 years old) was tested for antibodies to enteric adenovirus types 40 and 41 by neutralization test. Serum samples were also tested for antibody to the common antigen of adenovirus by enzyme immunoassay. The incidence of antibodies rose gradually through childhood. Antibodies were found in 20% of children between 1 and 6 months old and in 50% of those 37 to 48 months old. Of serum samples from young adults, 48% had antibodies. Antibodies were found in 10% of serum samples from the aged. Of patients with acute gastroenteritis, 19% showed a significant rise in antibody to adenovirus type 40 or 41 or both, and 42% of the same serum samples had a significant rise in antibody to rotavirus by enzyme immunoassay. None of the serum samples tested was negative to adenovirus common antigen. Noncultivatable adenoviruses have been demonstrated by electron microscopy in stool samples from children with diarrhea (5, 11, 13). On the basis of antigenic and DNA restriction pattern techniques, adenovirus types 40 and 41 (Ad40 and Ad4l, respectively) have been identified in stool specimens from patients with infantile gastroenteritis (4, 17, 20). Enteric adenoviruses are recognized as the second most commonly identified agent after rotavirus in stool samples of infants and young children with viral gastroenteritis (2, 10, 17). The seroepidemiology of enteric adenoviruses has been reported only by Kidd and his colleagues (9, 10). We report here the seroprevalence of neutralizing antibody to enteric adenoviruses in serum samples from various age groups in Japan.