THE PREPARATION OF HIGHLY PURIFIED PR8 INFLUENZA VIRUS FROM INFECTED MOUSE LUNGS

Highly purified preparations of PR8 influenza virus were obtained from perfused, infected mouse lungs by a combination of methods involving adsorption of the virus on and elution from chicken red cells and differential centrifugation. Such preparations were found to possess 50 per cent infectivity end-points at 10(–11) to 10(–11.8), and 10(–13) to 10(–14.3) gm. of nitrogen in mice and in chick embryos, respectively. A sedimentation constant of 683 S was obtained for the material and electron micrographs revealed essentially spherical particles about 100 mµ in diameter. The material was isoelectric at pH 5.4 and chemical analyses on several of the preparations indicated the presence of 10.1 per cent of nitrogen, 1.06 per cent of phosphorus, 6.2 per cent of carbohydrate and about 33 per cent of lipid. Positive tests were obtained for both ribonucleic and desoxyribonucleic acids. The virus was precipitated strongly by antisenim to purified PR8 virus obtained from the allantoic fluid of infected chick embryos and this serum inhibited the agglutination of red cells by the mouse virus to a dilution of about 40,000. In general, the properties of the virus isolated from infected mouse lungs were found to coincide with those of the virus obtained from the allantoic fluid of infected chick embryos.