Studies of the in Vitro Cytopathic Effect of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Tissue Preparations

Abstract

Two laboratories, using different inocula, cell lines and tissue culture systems recently reported that inflammatory bowel disease [IBD] tissues produce transmissible cytopathic effects [CPE] in cell culture (1–4). Both groups described virus-like particles in cell cultures undergoing CPE (3,4) and limited characterization suggests these to be RNA-viruses. Gitnick et al. (4) presented evidence for antigenic differences between the agents isolated from Crohn’s disease [CD], ulcerative colitis [UC] and control intestine and Whorwell et al. (3) reported that the CD-associated agent may be a reovirus. The positive culture results obtained at the University of Vermont and UCLA have been tempered by a report of mycoplasma contamination of cell culture passage material in some of these systems (5) and by a negative report of virus isolation from IBD tissues (6). We report here our experience with the isolation and characterization of cytopathic agents in IBD. These studies have been in progress since 1978.