IMMUNOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE INFECTIOUS CANINE HEPATITIS VIRUS : II. HEMAGGLUTININ

Experiments on the hemagglutination reaction by ICH virus were performed. The results are summarized as follows : 1) Two strains of ICH virus, "MATSUDA" and "Woc-4", agglutinated erythrocytes of human and guinea pigs under certain conditions. 2) HAT was affected by many environmental factors such as pH and electrolyte concentration of the reaction mixture, incubation temperature, concentration of erythrocytes and so on. Optimum conditions for the reaction were determined in respect to these factors. 3) Heat stability of infecting virus particle, CFA and hemagglutinin was studied and the relationship among these three components was discussed on the basis of the results of adsorption and elution experiments. 4) Normal dog sera were found to contain different amounts of normal inhibitor and hemagglutinin. Some methods to remove these substances are now under investigation. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Dr. OCHI, Tokyo University, for his helpful support in providing the strain of ICH virus

PURIFICATION STUDIES ON THE INFECTIOUS CANINE HEPATITIS VIRUS : II. VIRAL PARTICLES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS REVEALED BY MODIFICATION OF THE PURIFICATION PROCEDURE

The picture of the infectious canine hepatitis virus particle derived from infections tissue culture fluid and cells has been clearly demonstrated by a modified purification procedure. It was able to observe the fine structure of the particle when the virus was stained with phosphotungstic acid or sodium phosphotungstate. Fixing the purified virus particles with 2% neutral formalin resulted in the revelation of a clearly hexagonal or pentagonal image. Purified ICH virus particles keep infectivity and complement fixing and hemagglutinating activities and can be disintegrated by treatment with ether with the liberation of smaller particle, soluble antigen and hemagglutinin. The ultraviolet absorption spectrum of final purified virus particles shows a maximum at 258 mμ and a minimum at 240 mμ