ABSTRACT
AIM: To analyze the capability of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-infected human embryonic lung fibroblasts (HELFs) to induce immune response. METHODS: HELFs were infected with cytomegalovirus and stained with antibody against HLA-A2 molecular, the expression of HLA-A2 was detected by FCM. The infected HELFs were incubated with individual pp65 peptide NLVPMVATV. While the uninfected and unloaded infected HELFs served as control respectively. After PBMC was added to the differently treated HELFs and incubated, the immune response was measured with IFN-gamma release as readout. RESULTS: The expression of HLA-A molecular on infected fibroblasts diminished markedly compared with that on the uninfected. The peptides expressed on the infected HELFs together with those pulsed externally induced a stronger response than the infected HELFs alone. CONCLUSION: Although CMV can down-regulate the expression of MHC I on the infected cells, it can not decrease the capacity of cells to present peptides loaded externally, and therefore still induce immune response to some extent.
