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Detection of Virus-associated Antigen on Membranes of Cells Productively Infected with Marek's Disease Herpesvirus¹

The John L. Smith Memorial for Cancer Research, Pfizer Inc., Maywood, New Jersey 07607

At the outer surface of cells that are synthesizing Marek's disease herpesvirus, a new antigen appears. The antigen was recognized when viable infected cells were incubated with sera from chickens with Marek's disease and were tested by an indirect membrane immunofluorescence technique. The antigen-antibody complex was seen by electron microscopy as an electron-opaque coating at the plasma membrane of the reactive cells. Reactive cells had sites on their membranes with great activity, which corresponded to the areas of antigen-antibody complex formation. The cell membrane coating occurred only in cells that contained intracellular Marek's disease herpesvirus particles. The chicken sera which reacted with the cell membrane antigen also contained antibodies to the intracellular antigens present in cells productively infected with Marek's disease herpesvirus, as demonstrated by the indirect, fixed-cell, immunofluorescence technique. However, the same sera were not reactive in the fixed-cell immunofluorescence or membrane immunofluorescence tests with nonproductive lymphoid tumor cells obtained from chickens with Marek's disease.

¹ This study was supported by USPHS Research Contract NIH 70-2080 under the Special Virus Cancer Program of the National Cancer Institute.

Received 7/26/71. Accepted 9/23/71.