Poliovirus permissivity and specific receptor expression on human endothelial cells.

To test the role of the endothelial cells (EC) in the poliomyelitis pathogenesis, their sensitivity to poliovirus infection was determined at different times after isolation from the human umbilical vein. While 80% of EC were permissive for poliovirus after 4 days of in vitro primary cultures, only 6% of freshly isolated EC were susceptible to poliovirus infection. A progressive development of this susceptibility was observed during the first 3 days of culture. In an attempt to explain the mechanism of the appearance of cell permissivity for poliovirus, the expression of the poliovirus receptor on EC was studied by cytofluorometric analysis using an anti-receptor monoclonal antibody. The number of poliovirus receptor molecules in the EC population was found to increase with time. This paralleled the increase of the poliovirus-binding capacity of EC cultures. In contrast, the efficiency of viral internalization did not appear to be dependent on the age of culture. These results indicate that the development of EC permissivity for poliovirus in vitro is mainly dependent on the expression of poliovirus receptor on the cell surface.