%0 Journal Article %A Gönczöl, Eva %A Váczi, L. %T Cytomegalovirus Latency in Cultured Human Cells %D 1973 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 18 %N 2 %P 143-151 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-18-2-143 %I Microbiology Society, %X SUMMARY Infectious virus could not be recovered by disruption of human embryonic fibroblast cultures inoculated with cytomegalovirus and treated with cytosine-arabinoside (ara-C), either during treatment or 4 to 5 days after removing ara-C. However, when intact cells were used for infection, at least 1 in 70 cells was found harbouring virus. Examination by immunofluorescence revealed that 40 to 50% of the cells contained virus-specific antigens in the form of small granules diffusely distributed in the nuclei. The presence of infectious virus could be detected even in disrupted cells 4 to 5 days after removing ara-C; intracellular antigens of every kind were also found to develop. Experiments showed that the cultures continued to harbour latent infection indefinitely in the presence of ara-C. Cultures harbouring latent virus were susceptible to superinfection with cytomegalovirus. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-18-2-143