Effect of cytomegalovirus on lectin-driven mitogenesis of human thymic and peripheral blood lymphocytes.

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV), when added to cultures of either thymic or peripheral blood lymphocytes, was able to prevent these cells from responding to mitogenic stimulus. This effect was only obtained when live virus was utilized, and is apparently dependent on the ability of such virus to establish abortive infections in the cell cultures. CMV-infected cultures became deficient in terms of ability both to produce interleukin-2 (IL-2) activity as well as to respond to purified, recombinant IL-2 which was added exogenously. Similar results were obtained using either a laboratory strain (AD-169) of CMV or freshly-obtained clinical isolates of this virus which had been grown in tissue culture.