Antibodies against herpes simplex virus in a group of healthy humans without reactions to herpes simplex virus antigens in blasttransformation assays.

22 healthy individuals with different reactions in humoral and cell-mediated immunity to herpes simplex virus (HSV), as found in complement-fixation, neutralization, and blasttransformation assays have been further investigated using antibody-dependent cell-mediated immunity (ADCC) as a serological test. Sera from all individuals were absorbed on HSV-infected, varicella zoster virus (VZV)-infected or uninfected cell monolayers, before they were used in ADCC with HSV-infected cells, as target. The results with absorbed sera were compared with the results from unabsorbed sera. Fresh uninactivated sera have also been used in some of the investigations. By these experiments a group of individuals was found, who were HSV-positive in ADCC, but negative in all other, above-mentioned tests. Because of these reactions they are proposed to be HSV-positives without a latent infection.