Pathogenesis of murine cytomegalovirus infection: the macrophage as a permissive cell for cytomegalovirus infection, replication and latency.

Macrophages harvested from the peritoneal cavities of mice of several strains were permissive to infection with murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV). Macrophages from six mouse strains released equivalent amounts of plaque-forming virus into the culture fluids and cells from mouse strains scored similarly in numbers of infectious centres. Twenty to 50% of the infected macrophages obtained after thioglycollate activation formed infectious centres. When studied by in situ hybridization, more than 82% of infected macrophages (with or without thioglycollate activation) contained MCMV DNA. Macrophages obtained from latently infected mice were examined for their content of MCMV. Using co-cultivation assays, MCMV was frequently recovered from thioglycollate activated macrophages harvested from latently infected mice but only rarely recovered from non-activated macrophages. MCMV DNA--mouse DNA hybridization assays revealed four to seven virus genome DNA copies per 100 cells. These studies indicate that macrophages harvested from mice susceptible (BALB/cSt) or resistant (C3H) to MCMV infection replicated virus equivalently and that macrophages are a reservoir of MCMV during latent and chronic infections. Activation of macrophages may be one of the important steps leading to the exacerbation of in vivo latent infections.