Enhanced yields of measles virus from cultured cells

Conditions for increasing the yield of measles virus from cultured cells have been investigated. Important factors for high virus yields were found to be cell type, incubation at 33 degrees C, concentration of serum in the medium, use of virus as inoculum within five passages of plaque purification, and repeated harvesting of the virus-containing medium at 12 h intervals after extensive virus-induced cell fusion had occurred. Under these conditions, Vero cells infected with the Edmonston strain of measles virus yielded a total of 2.98 X 10(9) plaque-forming units (p.f.u.) of released virus, which is equivalent to 270 p.f.u./cell. A similar amount of cell-associated virus was produced.