Varicella-zoster virus DNA in cells isolated from human trigeminal ganglia
Myron J Levin1, Guang-Yun Cai, Michael D Manchak
1Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado 80262, USA. myron.levin@uchsc.edu
Abstract:
To determine the type of cell(s) that contain latent varicella-zoster virus (VZV) DNA, we prepared pure populations of neurons and satellite cells from trigeminal ganglia of 18 humans who had previously had a VZV infection. VZV DNA was present in 34 of 2,226 neurons (1.5%) and in none of 20,700 satellite cells. There was an average of 4.7 (range of 2 to 9) copies of VZV DNA per latently infected neuron. Latent VZV DNA was primarily present in large neurons, whereas the size distribution of herpes simplex virus DNA was markedly different.
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