Comparative susceptibilities of strain MRC-5 human embryonic lung fibroblast cells and the Cooney strain of human fetal tonsil cells for isolation of rhinoviruses from clinical specimens.

The comparative susceptibilities for rhinovirus isolation were determined for strain MRC-5 human embryonic lung fibroblast and human fetal tonsil cells. Samples from nasopharyngeal and throat swab clinical specimens were inoculated onto duplicate monolayers of each cell type. Of 105 rhinovirus-positive specimens, 78 (74%) were positive in MRC-5 cells, and 102 (97%) were positive in fetal tonsil cells (P less than 0.001). For 75 specimens positive in both, the mean time to cytopathic effect development with standard deviation was 1 +/- 2 days shorter in fetal tonsil cells (P less than 0.01). The use of a second virus culture increased rhinovirus isolations by 10% compared with a single culture.