ABSTRACT. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus hemagglutinin (HAin) was readily adsorbed on mouse erythrocytes at 4, 22, or 37°C, but not on goose erythrocytes. The adsorbed HAin could not be eluted from the cells by resuspending in phosphate buffered saline, by incubating at 37 or 50°C, or by incubating in the presence of neuraminidase. The hemagglutinating activity was not dependent on the pH and NaCl molarity tested. The receptor of mouse erythrocytes for the HAin was relatively stable to trypsin, neuraminidase, sodium deoxycholate (DOC), potassium periodate (KIO 4 ), dithiothreitol (DTT), 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME) and formalin treatments. The HAin was inactivated by 2-ME and was gradually inactivated by pepsin, formalin and DTT, but not by β-glucosidase, trypsin, α-amylase, papain, phospholipase C, neuraminidase, KIO 4 , and ethylendiamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) treatments. The HAin was stable at 37°C or lower temperatures, but not at 56°C or higher. The HAin was relatively resistant to ultraviolet irradiation and sonication. In the equilibrium centrifugation of the HAin preparation on a CsCl density gradient, the HAin activity showed a sharp peak at 1.17 g/cm 3 . In the SDS-PAGE analysis, the structural polypeptide of HAin in the peak fraction seems to be the nucleocapsid (N) polypeptide with molecular weight of 15 kDa. bovine serum albumin (BSA; Fraction V) and antibiotics as above.
Preparation of HAin:The HAin was prepared by the method described previously [4], with slight modification. Briefly, the infected culture fluid of MARC-145 cells was concentrated by adding 2% of 1 M zinc acetate solution and adjusted to pH 7.2 with 1 M NaOH. The mixture was stirred constantly at 4°C for 1 hr. After low-speed centrifugation the pellet was suspended in 1/50 the original volume of saturated solution of ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), adjusted to pH 7.2 by the addition of solid Tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane (Wako, Japan). The resulting solution was clarified by low-speed centrifugation and the supernatant was layered on 20% (w/v) sucrose solution and centrifuged at 100,000 × g for 4 hr (SW40Ti rotor Beckman, U.S.A.). The pellet was resuspended in 1/ 100 the original volume of PBS (0.15 M NaCl, 0.02 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.2) containing 0.2% BSA (PBS-BA) and then pretreated with 0.06% (v/v) of Tween 80 followed by 50% (v/v) of ether (Diethylether, Wako, Japan). The aqueous phase was used as HAin after the remaining of ether was sacked off and discarded. The HAin was stored at 4°C or 80°C before used.Preparation of pig immune serum: A 13-day-old pig obtained from the specific-pathogen-free farm was inoculated intranasally with 10 3.5 TCID 50 of the EDRD-1 strain of PRRSV grown on primary porcine alveolar macrophages. Serum samples were taken immediately before inoculation and at 6 weeks after inoculation for immunoblotting assay.HA test: HA test was carried out by microtiter method using ddY mouse erythrocytes as described previously [4].