Further studies on the restriction of rubella virus replication in rat glial cells in culture

We have shown previously that normal rat glial cells in tissue culture are nonpermissive for rubella virus (RV) replication for up to 2 weeks postinfection and that during that time, only five of the seven intracellular polypeptides associated with a normal productive infection could be observed following autoradiography. In this note we report three changes observed to occur simultaneously upon continuous subculture of these infected glia. Cell morphology and growth characteristics were significantly altered, infectious virus particles could be detected in tissue culture media, and analysis of intracellular viral polypeptides revealed the synthesis of ll seven polypeptides associated with a productive RV infection. These data indicate that under the appropriate conditions normal rubella virions may be reexpressed in a manner characteristic of many persistent viral infections. In addition, immunofluorescence techniques have been employed which show that during a nonproductive infection RV antigens are expressed in some glia which bear a striking morphological resemblance to oligodendrocytes.