Physiological state of human embryonic lung cells affects their response to human cytomegalovirus

Cultures of human embryonic lung (HEL) cells in different physiological states were studied for their susceptibility to infection with human cytomegalovirus (CMV) with respect to production of infectious virus, synthesis of viral antigens, and virus-induced stimulation of cellular DNA synthesis. In general, subconfluent, actively growing cells yielded higher amounts of infectious virus than did confluent contact-inhibited cells. The higher yield of infectious virus was correlated with a greater percentage of cells producing viral antigens within the first 48 h after infection. In confluent cultures, 25 to 50% of the cells produced viral antigens within the first 48 h postinfection. This proportion did not change over a 10-fold range of multiplicity of infection, indicating that many of the cells in confluent cultures did not support productive infection. However, virtually all the cells in subconfluent cultures were susceptible. Also, in contrast to herpes simplex virus and pseudorabies virus, infectious CMV is not produced by cells treated with 5-fluorouracil and thymidine. Virus-induced stimulation of cellular DNA synthesis in cells infected at high multiplicities of infection could be detected only in confluent cultures, in which cellular DNA synthesis had been previously suppressed, but could not be detected in similarly treated cultures of subconfluent cells. The lack of detectable stimulation of cellular DNA synthesis in the latter was related to the fact that practically all the cells in the culture synthesized viral antigens within the first 48 h after infection, productive infection and detectable synthesis of cellular DNA being mutually exclusive.