Human Cytomegalovirus. Studies on the Mechanism of Viral Gytopathology and Inclusion Body Formation. ∗

Summary

When cultured human fetal fi-broblasts were infected by human cytomegalo-virus, virus-induced morphologic changes consisting of cytopathology, intracytoplasmic and intranuclear inclusion bodies developed during a 72-hour period. Thus, in this system, virus-induced cell changes followed closely upon viral multiplication. Inhibitors of DNA synthesis, IUdR (100 μg/ml), mitomycin C (15 μg/ml) and cytosine arabinoside (100 μg/ml), when added at the time of infection, suppressed the production of infectious virus and the development of mature inclusions but did not interfere with the development of cytopathology and the “early” cytoplasmic lesion. An inhibitor of RNA synthesis, actino-mycin D (0.5 μg/ml), when added at the time of infection, prevented all virus-induced morphological changes and the production of infectious virus. An inhibitor of protein synthesis, puromycin (0.5 μg/ml), gave the same results as the inhibitors of DNA synthesis.