Comparative analysis of different methods to enhance porcine circovirus 2 replication

Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) is an extremely slow-growing virus, and PCV2 infection and replication in cell culture yield very low viral titers. The effects of different methods of PCV2 cultivation in vitro were compared with the purpose of increasing viral yield. The results showed that treatment with IL-2, ConA, and n-glucosamine increased PCV2 yield more effectively than other treatments. Additionally, treatment with IL-2, ConA, n-glucosamine and M beta CD consistently increased PCV2 infection in PK-15 cells during consecutive viral passages. A combinatorial treatment with ConA, M beta CD and D-glucosamine increased PCV2 yield significantly in PK-15 cells, to 1.81 x 10(10) genome copy numbers per mL of cell lysate at 72 hpi, and the viral titer (-1g TCID50/100 mu L) was 8.6. The results of this study may be helpful for the investigation of PCV2 replication and the production of a PCV2 vaccine. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.