Utilization of cellulose microcapillary tubes as a model system for culturing and viral infection of mammalian cells

Cryofixation by high-pressure freezing (HPF) and freeze substitution (FS) gives excellent preservation of intracellular membranous structures, ideal for ultrastructural investigations of virus infected cells. Conventional sample preparation methods of tissue cultured cells can however disrupt the association between neighboring cells or of viruses with the plasma membrane, which impacts upon the effectiveness whereby virus release from cells can be studied. We established a system for virus infection and transmission electron microscopy preparation of mammalian cells that allowed optimal visualization of membrane release events. African horse sickness virus (AHSV) is a nonenveloped virus that employs two different release mechanisms from mammalian cells, i.e., lytic release through a disrupted plasma membrane and a nonlytic budding-type release. Cellulose microcapillary tubes were used as support layer for culturing Vero cells. The cells grew to a confluent monolayer along the inside of the tubes and could readily be infected with AHSV. Sections of the microcapillary tubes proved easy to manipulate during the HPF procedure, showed no distortion or compression, and yielded well preserved cells in their native state. There was ample cell surface area available for visualization, which allowed detection of both types of virus release at the plasma membrane at a significantly higher frequency than when utilizing other methods. The consecutive culturing, virus infection and processing of cells within microcapillary tubes therefore represent a novel model system for monitoring intracellular virus life cycle and membrane release events, specifically suited to viruses that do not grow to high titers in tissue culture.