Use of the shope papilloma virus-induced arginase as a biochemical marker in vitro

Data are presented which support the view that infection of cell cultures of cotton-tail rabbit skin by rabbit papilloma virus (Shope) results in an enhanced arginase activity while only slight arginase activity could be found in control cell cultures. This confirms the original observations of Rogers, who isolated an arginase from virus-induced domestic and wild rabbit papilloma tissue obtained from the intact host while little or no arginase activity could be found in control skin. The ability of the Shope papilloma virus to induce an arginase in cell culture has an additional important impact. Thus far, infectious virus cannot be recovered from cell culture systems and the identification of this arginase provides an index of infection of cells in culture that was previously not available.