Use of microcarrier culture for the production of herpes simplex virus (type 2) in MRC-5 cells

The ultimate aim of this work is the production of a subunit vaccine of herpes simplex virus (HSV). The first step was towards the development of a high-yielding process for the production of HSV in tissue cells. The microcarrier system was evaluated for this purpose as it is a unit process with good scale-up potential and is a monolayer-growth method, essential for HSV production. Details are given of a closed perfusion system with environmental control which was capable of growing MRC-5 cells to densities in excess of 105 cm−2 (3 × 106 cm−3). However, it has proved difficult, so far, to obtain good titres of HSV in this system. A novel approach to the production of HSV antigen with cell membrane-associated antigens was tried. Preliminary trials in a guinea-pig model indicated that these membrane-associated antigens afforded protection against genital infection with HSV-2.