Adsorption of foot-and-mouth disease virus by muscle, kidney, lung and brain from infant and adult mice.

Adsorption of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus by minced and homogenized muscle, kidney, lung, and brain from infant and adult mice was compared under various experimental conditions to determine if there were differences in adsorption characteristics. The following factors were studied: relative ability to adsorb virus, sedimentation of the adsorbing components, heat lability of the components, virus elution, and recovery of cell-associated virus. The results indicated that the adsorbing components in brain were different from those in kidney and lung. Infant mouse muscle, the only tissue tested that was highly susceptible to FMD virus in vivo, had some adsorption characteristics similar to brain and others similar to kidney and lung. The possibility of a relationship of these characteristics to the susceptibility or resistance of the tissue donors was discussed.