Infection and growth of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in rabbit's corneal culture cells

With the view of making quantitative examination of the susceptibility of corneal epithelial cell and stromal cell to herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection, 6 HSV strains (4 of HSV type I, 2 of HSV type II) were inoculated in cultured rabbit's corneal cells (epithelial and stromal cells), and the following results were obtained: 1. When stock HSV was titrated with monolayer culture of each epithelial or stromal cells, strong CPE appeared within 24 hr in epithelial cell and the TCID50 titer of HSV was read as 10(7.5)-10(8.7)/ml at 120 hr. On the other hand, in stromal cell the TCID50 titer showed 10(6.4)-10(6.8)/ml at 72 hr and did not increase thereafter. 2. In terms of the growth curve for HSV type I, the eclipse period was about 4 hr for epithelial cell compared with about 4 hr for stromal cell. At 24 hr, postinfection of standard strain, about 10(7) TCID50/ml of virus was obtained from both epithelial and stromal cell culture. In the case of clinical isolate infection, however, about 10(7) TCID50 was obtained from epithelial cells and 1 in 10th lower titer of virus was obtained from stromal cells. The above results seemed to be of importance in the consideration of different onset mechanisms of epithelial type corneal herpes and stromal ones.