Correlation of surface and internal ultrastructural changes in cells infected with foot-and-mouth disease virus

The surfaces of primary and continuous line cell cultures displayed the same sequence of morphological changes during the course of infection with foot-and-mouth disease virus. These changes could be classified into four broad stages: I) cells were flattened, closely attached to one another and microvilli appeared, II) cells rounded, microvilli began to disappear and the cells started to separate from one another by cytoplasmic strands, III) cells were discrete, rounded structures and IV) cells were rounded and had numerous attached buds, some of which contained virus. The internal changes included the appearance of increasing amounts of smooth membranous vacuoles lined with the viral induced RNA polymerase and the presence of buds, some with viral particles inside. While the different cell cultures showed similar internal and external changes as a result of infection, they responded to infection at different rates and contained subpopulations of resistant cells.