Infectious hepatitis A virus particles produced in cell culture consist of three distinct types with different buoyant densities in CsCl.

Although hepatitis A virus (HAV) released by infected BS-C-1 cells banded predominantly at 1.325 g/cm3 (major component) in CsCl, smaller proportions of infectious virions banded at 1.42 g/cm3 (dense HAV particles) and at 1.27 g/cm3 (previously unrecognized light HAV particles). cDNA-RNA hybridization confirmed the banding of viral RNA at each density, and immune electron microscopy demonstrated apparently complete viral particles in each peak fraction. The ratio of the infectivity (radioimmunofocus assay) titer to the antigen (radioimmunoassay) titer of the major component was approximately 15-fold greater than that of dense HAV particles and 4-fold that of light HAV particles. After extraction with chloroform, the buoyant density of light and major component HAV particles remained unchanged, indicating that the lower density of the light particles was not due to association with lipids. Light particles also banded at a lower density (1.21 g/cm3) in metrizamide than did the major component (1.31 g/cm3). Dense HAV particles, detected by subsequent centrifugation in CsCl, were indistinguishable from the major component when first banded in metrizamide (1.31 g/cm3). However, dense HAV particles recovered from CsCl subsequently banded at 1.37 g/cm3 in metrizamide. Electrophoresis of virion RNA under denaturing conditions demonstrated that dense, major-component, and light HAV particles all contained RNA of similar length. Thus, infectious HAV particles released by BS-C-1 cells in vitro consist of three distinct types which band at substantially different densities in CsC1, suggesting different capsid structures with varied permeability to cesium or different degrees of hydration.