Establishment of a nonproductive herpes simplex virus infection in rabbit kidney cells

A nonproductive infection of rabbit kidney cells was established with a type 2 strain of herpes simplex virus after incubation of the virus-infected cells at 41 C. Although infectious virus could not be recovered from cells disrupted by freeze-thawing or sonication after incubation at 41 C, spontaneous reactivation of virus growth occurred in 84% of the cultures after lag periods of variable length when cultures of viable cells were transferred to 37 C and incubated. Forty-one percent of the cultures had lag periods of 4 or more days, and 24% had lag periods of 7 or more days. The longest lag period was 45 days. A similar infection was established in WI-38 cells, but attempts to establish the infection in human kidney cells was not successful. This nonproductive infection is being used to study the effects of various physical and chemical agents on herpes simplex virus in a latent state.