DEPRESSION OF ANAEROBIC GLYCOLYSIS OF EMBRYONIC TISSUE BY WESTERN STRAIN OF EQUINE ENCEPHALOMYE- LITIS VIRUS. PREVENTION OF THIS EFFECT BY SPECIFIC IMMUNE SERUM BY JOSEPH VICTOR, M.D., ANn

Titration and neutralization of the Western strain of equine encephalomyelitis virus (W.E.E.) by means of tissue cultures have been demonstrated by Hnang (2, 3). Employing the technique devised by Simms and Sanders (1) he found that minced skeletal muscle of chick embryo, incubated with W.E.E. for 48 hours, failed to grow when transferred to plasma. Examination of the plasma patches for growth of the tissue was made 48 hours after the latter was planted in the plasma. When immune anti-W.E.E, horse serum was mixed with virus and incubated for 48 hours with embryonic skeletal muscle, the growth inhibiting effect of the virus on the tissue was prevented. It seemed probable that embryonic tissue with impaired ability to grow might have a disturbance in cellular function. Many studies have demonstrated that growing tissues, both embryonic and tumor, have higher glycol)tic rates than resting tissues of the same cell type. If embryonic tissues infected with W.E.E. had a lower glycol)tic rate than normal tissue, the demonstration of such a disturbed function would simplify and shorten the time necessary for carrying out titration and neutralization tests. Recent studies of Racker and Kabat (4) indicated that the brain and spinal cord of mice infected with the Lansing strain of poliomyelitis virus have a lower rate of anaerobic glycolysis than normal, although the respiratory rate is unaltered. The following experiments are concerned with the effects of the Western strain of equine encephalomyelitis virus on the anaerobic glyeolysis of embryonic chick tissue. It was found that a decrease in anaerobic glycolysis occurred in infected embryonic tissue and that it could be prevented by the action of specific immune serum.