Susceptibility of cultures of rheumatoid tissues to rubella virus infection

✍ Scribed by Michael D. Parker; Donald E. McCollum; Dr. Grace P. Kerby

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1972
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 533 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780150309

✦ Synopsis

Previous reports by others of resistance of cultured rheumatoid synovial cells to experimental virus infection prompted extension of such studies to rheumatoid fibroblasts from other tissues. Strains of cells derived from rheumatoid skin, synovium and a nodule and from nonrheumatoid skin and synovium were inoculated in vitro with rubella virus (RV). All of the tissues studied proved equally susceptible to RV infection.

Rheumatoid synovial cells grown as a monolayer in tissue culture differ from cells derived similarly from patients with other types of arthritis. To summarize briefly, rheumatoid cells show increased lysosomal activity (1 ), solubilize cartilage matrix (2), have a decreased life span (3), form hyaluronic acid at an accelerated rate but of abnormal intrinsic viscosity (4, 5), metabolize glucose more rapidly (5), are less responsive to hydrocortisone suppression in formation of hyaluronate (4), are less affected by polypeptide "activator" (5), and are reported to be completely resistant to infection with RV (6) and relatively resistant to infection with Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) (7). The increased lysosomal activity, the more rapid metabolism of glucose and the From the Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatic and Genetic Diseases, and the