Using Primary Human Cells to Analyze Human Cytomegalovirus Biology

The extensive tropism of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) results in the productive infection of multiple cell types within the human host. However, infection of other cell types, such as undifferentiated cells of the myeloid lineage, give rise to nonpermissive infections. This aspect has been used experimentally to model latent infection, which is known to be established in the pluripotent CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cell population resident in the bone marrow in vivo. The absence of a tractable animal model for studies of HCMV has resulted in a number of laboratories employing experimental infection of cells in vitro to simulate both HCMV lytic and latent infection. Herein, we will focus on the techniques used in our laboratory for the isolation and use of primary cells to study aspects of HCMV latency, reactivation, and lytic infection.