This communication describes experiments which we carried out in 1963-1964. Circumstances in the interim have prevented the continued pursuit although recently, additional studies have been undertaken.
Tissue Culture
The "Lyon 1" and "Lyon 4" strains of human fibroblastic diploid cells were nurtured in this laboratory. The cells were obtained from fetal skin and fetal lung tissues, respectively. Isolation was attempted initially in parallel, on both cell strains. Subsequently, enriched results with the Lyon 4 cells led to the discard of the other cell strain.
Clinical Material
Serum was obtained from patients with serum hepatitis (SH) and infectious hepatitis (IH).Three patients with SH were apparently infected during 1963 by transfusion with D+ cells from a single donor. This donor was later shown to possess Australia antigen (Au). The sera were obtained shortly after the onset of jaundice.The other specimens were collected from patients with infectious hepatitis.
Results
Isolation Experiments.