Persistence of Both Human Cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr Virus Genomes in Two Human Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines

Abstract

By DNA-DNA reassociation kinetic analysis, less than one genome equivalent per cell of human CMV-DNA was found in two lymphoblastoid cell lines, one derived from the peripheral blood of a congenitally infected male infant at the age of 21 months (D4 cell line), the other obtained by co-cultivation of lethally X-irradiated cells from the 9-month lymphoblastoid cell line previously described by Joncas et al. (1975) with cord blood leukocytes of a female newborn (M1 cell line). Human CMV antigens could not be detected and virus could not be rescued from these cells by co-cultivation with fully permissive human fibroblasts. It may be that the CMV-DNA is defective. Epstein-Barr virus DNA as well as EBNA and EBV-EA antigens were present in these cell lines. Both lines express surface markers characteristic of thymus-independent, B lymphocytes.