The Adaptation of Two Human Coronavirus Strains (OC38 and OC43) to Growth in Cell Monolayers

Hemadsorption by Coronavirus Strain OC43

“…The hemadsorption reaction in the BS-C-1 cultures was quite stable as the red cells remained attached following shaking and repeated washing of the monolayer. Hemadsorption appeared from several days to 1 week before cytopathogenic effect (CPE) ; the CPE in HDCS W138 cultures resembled that of the 2293 virus in cultures of HDCS WI38, and in human embryonic intestine (HE1 or MA177) cell cultures, whereas, in HEK cells, it resembled that of OC43 virus in BS-C-1 cell cultures (2,5,13). Nonspecific hemadsorption was observed frequently with HEK cell cultures and occasionally in BS-C-1 cells; an estimate of the frequency of nonspecific hemadsorption in rhesus MK and HDCS W138 cultures could not be made since tests were not routinely performed in these cell cultures.…”

“…However, progress in this area has been achieved recently: viruses similar to 229E, the prototype of the initial tissue culture strain, were successfully isolated in human embryonic intestine monolayer cultures from patients with naturally occurring upper respiratory illnesses ; I38 14 virus, the first OC strain, 2 other OC strains LP and EVS, and 229E virus, were recovered in L132 cell monolayers from nasal washings of patients challenged with these agents. In addition, OC43 (and OC38) viruses which were originally recovered in OC and later adapted to grow in suckling mice were not only shown to directly hemagglutinate various erythrocytes but were also adapted to grow in monkey kidney monolayers (2,8,10,12,13). In this paper we have described the hemadsorption of both rat and mouse erythrocytes to various monolayer tissue cultures infected with OC43 virus.…”

“…The BS-C-1 cell culture grown OC43 and OC 38 virus suspensions used in this study had been previously passaged in HET organ cultures, suckling mice1 and primary monkey kidney cell cultures in the order indicated, and were available in this laboratory from previous studies by BruEkova et al or were derived from such harvests ( 13). Unless otherwise noted, such OC43 and OC38 virus suspensions were used in this study.…”

Detection and Identification by Immune Electron Microscopy of Fastidious Agents Associated with Respiratory Illness, Acute Nonbacterial Gastroenteritis, and Hepatitis A

“…The particles were not randomly distributed but were present almost exclusively as groups that stood out clearly from the surrounding matter. Additional studies were made by IEM to determine if this coronavirus strain, designated as 692, was related to coronaviruses 229E and OC43, the only known distinct coronaviruses of human origin that we have been able to propagate in either cell cultures or an animal system or both in our laboratory (17,39,45,48,49). Particles heavily coated with antibody were not randomly distributed but were present almost peared to be covered with little, if any, antibody (Fig.…”

Intracellular Development and Mechanism of Hemadsorption of a Human Coronavirus, OC43

“…However, one of the NIH organ culture coronaviruses, OC43 (3), which has been adapted to grow in tissue culture (7), has been shown to hemagglutinate rat red blood cells directly without chemical activation (2 1). Furthermore, BS-C-1, rhesus monkey kidney, human embryonic kidney, and human diploid cell strain (HDCS) W138 monolayer cultures infected with OC43 virus were found to adsorb rat red blood cells (22) The findings that OC43-infected cells hemadsorb, is unexpected, since, if this virus develops in the same way as IBV and 2293 by budding into cytoplasmic vesicles, one would not expect the surfafce of the infected cell to contain hemagglutinin, which would enable red cells to attach.…”