Using plaque method for titration of hepatitis A virus (HAV)

ABSTRACT

Most hepatitis A virus replication in cell cutter has been reported to be nonlytic and relatively slow. A rapidly replicating isolate of strain HM-175 from persistently infected, serially passed cell cultures (pHM-175) was found to induce a cytopathic effect. This observation allowed the development of a classic plaque assay for pHM-175 in FRhK-4 cells (fetal rhesus kidney) which were used for the preparation of some lytic virus stocks and for all plaque assays. All cells were cultured at 37oC in DMEM + 10% FCS + 5mcg/ml gentamicin sulfate (GIBCO, Grand, NY). The pHM-175 stock was made by decanting supernatant medium and freezing infected cells in DMEM at -70oC.