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The factors that regulate cytomegalovirus (CMV) excretion from the genitourinary tract are poorly understood. To assess the role of cell-mediated immunity in such excretion, a CMV-specific mononuclear blastogenesis assay was used to study a predominantly lower-socioeconomic-status population of 92 healthy nonpregnant adolescent women who also had CMV complement-fixing antibody titers and viral cultures of cervix, urine, saliva, and blood performed. Eighteen were studied more than once. No blood cultures were positive and no seroconversions were noted. There was no significant difference for frequency or degree of systemic CMV-specific blastogenesis between the 20 who were culture positive and the 41 who were seropositive but culture negative, although 40% of the culture-positive group and 27% of the seropositive, culture-negative group lacked CMV-specific blastogenesis. One of 31 seronegative subjects displayed CMV-specific blastogenesis. No systematic deficits were noted in any groups or individuals for E rosette number or mitogen response, though some isolated significant differences among groups for mitogen responses existed. Local CMV excretion in the study population was not related to systemic CMV-specific mononuclear blastogenesis.

The role of maternal cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific cellular immunity in gestational CMV excretion and transmission of congenital infection was assessed by studying CMV-specific mononuclear proliferation (CMV-MP) longitudinally during pregnancy in 59 lower socioeconomic class adolescents. CMV-MP was absent in mothers seropositive for CMV on more than 40% of occasions tested, but no significant difference was noted at any time in frequency or degree of CMP-MP between the 16 mothers who shed virus and the 29 who were seropositive for CMV but did not shed virus. The presence of CMV-MP did not preclude gestational CMV excretion. The lone mother who bore a congenitally infected infant lacked CMV-MP on all three occasions when she shed virus. CMV-MP was noted in cord blood from 14 uninfected infants of seropositive mothers. Maternal CMV-specific cellular immunity is not the major determinant of gestational CMV excretion, but the extent of its role in modulating transmission of congenital infection is yet unclear.

Four virus-infected avian cell lines have been established in culture. Two of these lines, infected with BAI strain A virus, liberate only small quantities of virus in the culture fluid. The cells retain the ability to induce myeloblastic leukemia when inoculated i.v. into 1- to 2-day-old chicks, but do so less efficiently than freshly obtained myeloblasts. These cells do not appear to be transplantable, since the disease produced is characterized by the presence of myeloblasts that liberate large quantities of virus. The other two cell lines, infected with the MC29 strain of avian leukosis virus, liberate normal levels of infectious virus in the culture fluid. When these cells are inoculated into the wing web of 1- to 2-day-old chicks, tumors develop at the site of inoculation which are detectable as early as 4 to 7 days after challenge. Chromosome studies demonstrate that the four cell lines have karyotypes typical of Gallus domesticus. The myeloblastic cell lines (D.U. 11157 and D.U. 1765) show a reduction in the number of microchromosomes. These cell lines have been carried in continuous culture for various lengths of time, can be frozen, are easily recovered in viable form, and appear to be capable of indefinite growth.