Ultrastructure of in vitro aged chick embryo cell cultures in relation to viral infection.

Abstract

The ultrastructure of young uninfected and infected with herpes simplex virus chick embryo cells was compared with that of aged cells. In contrast to the nuclei of young chick embryo cells 24 hr after infection, the aged chick embryo cells 24 hr after infection presented very expressive blocks of perinuclear chromatin. The nucleoplasm contains forming naked HSV particles. The lesions seen are dilation of the perinuclear cisternae, dilatation of rough endoplasmic reticulum cisternae and formation of multilamellar bodies. The moderate swellings of the mitochondria with violation of cristae arrangement and losing of mitochondrial matrix were observed. In contrast to the cytoplasm of young infected cells no formation of crystal-like arrangement of cytoplasmic ribosome tetrads occurs.