Applications of Primary Cell Cultures in the Study of Animal Viruses **

Since the discovery by Enders, Weller, and Robbins in 1949' that poliovirus could multiply in cultures of non-nervous tissues, cell culture techniques have been used extensively in the studies of enteroviruses' for the last decade. The accumulated literature reveals that the usefulness of these culture methods is many-fold and may include virus isolation, virus multiplication studies, and serological diagnoses of disease, as well as epidemiological investigations. A review of tissue culture techniques in the study of enteroviruses has been published in detail by Weller' and by Melnick." This discussion will deal with a few biological characteristics of certain enteroviruses in primary cell cultures and the applications of these culture techniques in genetic studies of animal viruses.