Fluorescent Antibody Studies with Agents of Varicella and Herpes Zoster Propagated in vitro.

Abstract

Tissue culture preparations infected with agents originally derived from the eruptive lesions of cases of varicella and herpes zoster, as well as control preparations infected with the virus of herpes simplex, were studied by a modification of the fluorescent antibody technique. Employing the infected preparations as antigen, fixation of antibody from human sera derived from cases of varicella, herpes zoster or herpes simplex was detected by the use of a fluorescent antihuman gamma globulin conjugate. Antibody reacting with the varicella and herpes zoster antigens to an almost identical degree appeared during convalescence in serum specimens derived either from cases of varicella or from cases of herpes zoster. Antibody reacting with herpes simplex virus was demonstrated uniformly only in a group of sera derived from cases of recurrent herpes simplex. Immunologic evidence was thus obtained to support the thesis that the etologic agents of varicella and herpes zoster have been isolated and propagated in vitro.