Isolation and replication of rabies virus in C6 rat glioma cells (clone CCL-107)

The susceptibility of the C6 rat glioma cell line (ATCC; CCL-107) to rabies virus was characterized. The kinetics of infection performed with a fixed and a wild strain (from an infected cow) of rabies virus was monitored by d irect immunofluorescence. Fluorescent cytoplasmic bodies were readily obser ved by UV microscopy from 24 hours post-infection (hpi) onwards. The abilit y of C6 to produce rabies infective virion particles was confirmed by deter mining the viral titres present in the supernatants of infected cultures, b y both BHK-21 cell infection and mice inoculation. C6 cells produced simila r viral titres to those produced by BHK-21 for both strains used. In additi on, the yield of rabies glycoprotein was assessed by ELISA. In general, BHK -21 and C6 cells infected either by PV or with the wild rabies strain produ ced similar amounts of rabies glycoprotein. At 96 hpi, however, when the gl ycoprotein production peaked, BHK-21 infected with the wild strain produced significantly higher amounts of glycoprotein than C6. Subsequently, the op timal conditions for isolation of wild rabies virus strains from C6 cells w ere established and these proved to be as sensitive as NA cells in detectin g 10 wild rabies samples. Due to the high sensitivity exhibited, C6 rat gli oma cells present a new and useful system for rabies virus investigation. ( C) 2001 The International Association for Biologicals.