Congenital human cytomegalovirus(HCMV) infection is a leading infectious cause of birth defects.Previous studies have reported birth defects with multiple organ maldevelopment in congenital HCMV-infected neonates. Mul...Congenital human cytomegalovirus(HCMV) infection is a leading infectious cause of birth defects.Previous studies have reported birth defects with multiple organ maldevelopment in congenital HCMV-infected neonates. Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells(MSCs) are a group of stem/progenitor cells that are multi-potent and can self-renew, and they play a vital role in multiorgan formation. Whether MSCs are susceptible to HCMV infection is unclear. In this study, MSCs were isolated from Wharton's jelly of the human umbilical cord and identified by their plastic adherence, surface marker pattern, and differentiation capacity. Then, the MSCs were infected with the HCMV Towne strain, and infection status was assessed via determination of viral entry,replication initiation, viral protein expression, and infectious virion release using western blotting,immunofluorescence assays, and plaque forming assays. The results indicate that the isolated MSCs were fully permissive for HCMV infection and provide a preliminary basis for understanding the pathogenesis of HCMV infection in non-nervous system diseases, including multi-organ malformation during fetal development.展开更多
基金supported by the National Science Foundation of China (81071350,81271850,and 31170155)the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 program 2011CB504804 and 2012CB519003)
文摘Congenital human cytomegalovirus(HCMV) infection is a leading infectious cause of birth defects.Previous studies have reported birth defects with multiple organ maldevelopment in congenital HCMV-infected neonates. Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells(MSCs) are a group of stem/progenitor cells that are multi-potent and can self-renew, and they play a vital role in multiorgan formation. Whether MSCs are susceptible to HCMV infection is unclear. In this study, MSCs were isolated from Wharton's jelly of the human umbilical cord and identified by their plastic adherence, surface marker pattern, and differentiation capacity. Then, the MSCs were infected with the HCMV Towne strain, and infection status was assessed via determination of viral entry,replication initiation, viral protein expression, and infectious virion release using western blotting,immunofluorescence assays, and plaque forming assays. The results indicate that the isolated MSCs were fully permissive for HCMV infection and provide a preliminary basis for understanding the pathogenesis of HCMV infection in non-nervous system diseases, including multi-organ malformation during fetal development.