Filamentous Structures in Ectromelia Virus-infected Cells

Abstract

THE presence of parallel arrays of thin lamellæ clustered in bundles in the cytoplasm of some tumour cells containing Shope fibroma virus has been depicted by Bernhard et al. ¹. Fawcett² has observed irregular, coarse bundles of dense filaments in the cytoplasm of virus-containing tumour cells of the Lucké renal adenocarcinoma. Morgan et al. ³, reviewing their earlier micrographs of chick chorioallantois infected with fowl pox, found clusters of dense filaments, indistinguishable from those described by Bernhard, in the cytoplasm of ectodermal cells containing virus particles⁴. More recently, Reczko⁵ has demonstrated the presence of groups of lamellæ in the epithelial cells of guinea pig peritoneum infected with swine pox virus. In electron micrographs of sections of chick chorioallantoic membranes infected with ectromelia virus, bundles of filaments have been observed in association with intra-cytoplasmic virus inclusion bodies.