Isolation of enteroviruses and adenoviruses in continuous simian cell lines

The ability of five simian cell lines--BGM, LLC-MK2, MA104, Vero and BSC-1--to isolate enteroviruses and adenoviruses from faeces was assessed and compared with that of primary or secondary rhesus monkey kidney (RhMK) and HEp2 cultures. For enteroviruses, LLC-MK2 and BGM were best of the five lines, detecting 77% and 73% respectively of 88 strains isolated, but neither was as good as RhMK, which detected 88%. Both Vero and BSC-1 detected less than 50%. All cell types were good at isolating poliovirus and coxsackie B strains, although LLC-MK2 and BGM were slightly better than MA104, Vero, BSC-1 and HEp2 for the latter. Greatest variation in sensitivity occurred with coxsackie A9 and echovirus isolates, with all lines being less sensitive than RhMK. However, the combined isolation rate for BGM, LLC-MK2 and HEp2 was the same as that for RhMK and HEp2, although the strains not detected by each cell combination were different. Both Vero and BSC-1 were reasonable for detecting adenoviruses, but neither was as good as HEp2. The reasons for variations in results, and the future use for such cell lines for isolating viruses from clinical and environmental samples, are discussed.