Analysis of HSV isolated from patients with unilateral and bilateral herpetic keratitis.

Restriction enzyme analysis was utilized to investigate 11 HSV isolates from patients with herpetic keratitis. The electrophoretic profiles of the DNAs indicate that the isolates belong to HSV-1 and are epidemiologically unrelated. Two of the isolates, derived from a patient with simultaneous bilateral herpetic keratitis were further characterized by genetic and phenotypic analyses. These studies showed the following: (i) the two recrudescent lesions were caused by the same HSV-1 isolate; (ii) the isolate yielded two different plaque phenotypes; (iii) these plaques showed different sensitivity to I.D.U.