Budding Process and Fine Structure of Lymphadenopathy-associated Virus (LAV)

The budding process and fine structure of lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV), were studied by indirect immunofluorescence (IF) and electron microscopy (EM). By IF, LAV antigen was seen to be distributed focally within infected CCRF-CEM cells. Consistent with this finding, electron micrographs showed that LAV particles occurred in a focally aggregated state in a restricted area of the surface of the infected cells. LAV particles possessed bar-shaped, dense and central or eccentric cores. In addition, two or more cores were occasionally observed in one virus particle, or the cores were sometimes absent when thin sections were examined. The envelope of the virus particles had an irregular structure, although LAV particles were approximately spherical.