Morphological Evidence of SARS Associated Reovirus

To identify the pathogen isolated from lung tissue of a patient died from SARS by using electron microscope. Sample of lung tissue taken from autopsy of the SARS patient was inoculated onto Hep2 cultured cells. Any cultured cells exhibiting cytopathic effect were processed by routine techniques for ultrathin sections. Electron microscopic examination revealed the characteristic morphological features of reovirus. The virus particles showed in different mature stages, the matured particles with dense core and the incompletely assembled virus particles with lucent core. Both of them have capsid about 14nm in thickness with a size of virions about 60-80nm in diameter. Most of the virions were found in large clusters arranged in crystalline array and associated with the viral plasm and microtubular-like structure to form cytoplasmic inclusion bodies of different size and shape. In this study, we have provided further morphological evidence that reovirus may be associated with SARS. However, the correlation of the