N. Jourdan et al., INFECTION OF CULTURED HUMAN INTESTINAL-CELLS BY MONKEY RRV AND HUMAN WA ROTAVIRUS AS A FUNCTION OF INTESTINAL EPITHELIAL-CELL DIFFERENTIATION, Research in virology, 146(5), 1995, pp. 325-331
Rotaviruses display in vivo a specific tropism for enterocytes of the
small intestine. We examined here the infection of cultured human inte
stinal epithelial Caco-2 cells by rhesus monkey rotavirus (RRV) and hu
man Wa rotavirus. The maximal infection of these cells was obtained wh
en trypsin was present both in the viral inoculum before adsorption to
the cells and in the culture medium during the course of cell infecti
on. Since the differentiation process of Caco-2 cells in culture close
ly mimics in vivo differentiation of enterocytes along the crypt-villu
s axis, cell infection by RRV and Wa rotavirus was examined as a funct
ion of cell differentiation. We showed that RRV and Wa rotavirus can i
nfect equally well both undifferentiated and differentiated Caco-2 cel
ls.