Abstract
Lymphocyte stimulation responses to herpes antigens were studied using virus-infected X-irradiated cells. Rabbits were immunized with herpes simplex virus type 1 (strain HFEM) grown in RK13 cells. For in vitro stimulation assay BHK21 cells were X-irradiated (15000 rad) and infected with a high m.o.i. of a temperature-sensitive (ts) mutant (N102) of HFEM strain at the non-permissive temperature (38.5 °C) of virus. Virus antigens were expressed on the infected cells and there was no leakage of infectious virus into the medium at 38.5 °C. T lymphocytes from rabbits immunized with herpes simplex virus were specifically activated by herpesvirus-infected X-irradiated cells; lymph node cells from rabbits immunized with RK13 cells and from non-immune rabbits showed no proliferative response.