Propagation of herpes simplex virus in tissue cultures of rabbit kidney.

The propagation of viruses in cultures of mammalian tissue cells provides many new applications and advantages for virus research and routine diagnostic work. Although herpes simplex virus has been propagated in tissue culture by several workers (literature reviewed by Sanders, Kiem and Lagunoff, 1953), there still exists a need for a simple method which will produce high yields of virus and give visible evidence of viral multiplication. Such a method would be valuable for the routine work of isolation, identification and titration of the virus, as well as for antibody assays. In our studies on herpes simplex virus, stationary plasma-free tissue cultures of rabbit kidney were used to propagate the virus. The results of these investigations are reported in the present paper.