Effect of glucosamine on virus production and antigen expression in avian sarcoma virus-transformed cells.

Treatment by glucosamine of avian sarcoma virus-transformed chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells completely inhibited the formation of progeny-transforming virus particles. Such cells, however, could continue to synthesize non-infectious physical particles containing both viral RNA and the enzyme RNA-dependent DNA polymerase if glucosamine exposure was performed in the presence of glucose. Glucosamine treatment was found to affect antigenic expression in transformed CEF as measured by an indirect immunofluorescence test. Inhibition to a far lesser extent was observed when a lymphocyte stimulation assay for the detection of cell-mediated immunity was used in this system.