Detection of Lucké herpes virus antigens in infected frog pronephric cells

A frog pronephric cell line, infected with herpes virus derived from Lucké renal carcinomas of Rana pipiens was examined for the presence of Lucké herpes virus antigens. Non-infected pronephric cells were controls. Antiserum to purified Lucké tumor herpes virus was applied in blind tests to the normal and virus infected cells. Both cytoplasmic and nuclear fluorescence was found in the herpes virus infected cells after indirect immunofluorescence with the antiserum. Infected cells cultivated at the optimum growth temperature of 25 degrees C or maintained at 9 degrees C, a temperature inducive to herpes virus replication, showed equivalent fluorescence reactions. No fluorescence was found in the normal pronephric cell line. Examination of parallel herpes infected cells showed cytopathic effect in monolayers by light microscopy, and nuclear or cytoplasmic immunofluorescence. Electron microscopic examination revealed proviral elements in nuclei and sparsely scattered herpes virus coincident with cytoplasmic fluorescence.