Polarized distribution of the viral glycoproteins of vesicular stomatitis, fowl plague and Semliki Forest viruses in hippocampal neurons in culture: a light and electron microscopy study.

We have shown previously using immunofluorescence microscopy that upon infection of polarized hippocampal cells in culture with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and fowl plague virus (FPV) the VSV glycoprotein is delivered to the plasma membrane of the dendrites and of the cell body whereas the FPV hemagglutinin is transported to the axonal surface (Cell, 62 (1990) 63-72). In this work electron microscopy of infected rat hippocampal neurons showed that VSV progeny budded from the plasma membrane of the dendrites and the cell body. The location of the budding virions corresponded to the distribution of the VSV glycoprotein which was detected over the somatodendritic plasma membrane by immunoelectron microscopy. In contrast, no FPV formation was seen in the infected neurons although the FPV hemagglutinin was localized to the axonal surface by immunoelectron microscopy. In Semliki Forest virus (SFV) infected hippocampal cells we observed that the viral glycoproteins were exclusively present in the dendrites and cell body but not in axons.