The growth of polio virus in human diploid fibroblasts grown with cellulose microcarriers in suspension cultures.

Human diploid fibroblasts have been successfully grown with cellulose fiber microcarriers in suspension giving values of between 1 to 2 X 10(6) cells/ml. When infected with polio virus type 1 titers were obtained which were at least as good or better than those obtained with monkey kidney cells and similar to that obtained with Vero cells. Good results were also obtained using conventional microcarriers such as Cytodex, Biosilon and Gelibeads. Our results suggest that many of the technical difficulties in growing human diploid fibroblasts on microcarriers can be overcome allowing these cells to be a favourable alternative to heteroploid cells as a substrate for viral vaccine production.