ABSTRACT
The cell monolayer culture remains the gold standard for detection of respiratory viruses and remains the reference to which other methods such as genomic amplification are compared. Although cell culture may not be as sensitive as PCR techniques in many instances, most hospital laboratories use cell culture as a reliable screening method for respiratory viruses. Furthermore, it is often impractical for most laboratories to carry all cell lines, and in this respect a broad practical coverage of viruses can be obtained by using a continuous human epithelial line (HEp-2, A-549, HeLa), a human fibroblast cell strain (HLF, HELF, MRC5, WI-38), and primary rhesus monkey kidney (PMK) cells for most applications. The inoculum is adsorbed on the mono layers at room temperature and the cultures washed with maintenance medium and incubated at 33-36°C for up to 3 weeks, with subpassaging as required. Roller culture tubes are often used to enhance the cytopathic effects (CPE). All tubes are examined at least twice weekly, and virus growth is detected by the characteristic CPE under light microscopy or by other methods such as hemadsorption ( 11 ).
