Infection Regularity of Rhesus Cytomegalovirus in Indigenous RhCMV Rhesus Monkey Model

Abstract

RhCMV, which is a counterpart of HCMV, some specific phenotypes of natural infection are not fully understood. The present research was designed to study the seroprevalence of indigenous infection of RhCMV among different age groups by ELISA, and detected its histological distribution in adult and their own fetal monkeys by the ISH and PCR methods. The ELISA result showed that the average seroprevalence of RhCMV was 76%, the concentration of RhCMV-IgG in each group was between 10- 30 pg/ml and there was no significant difference between each group (P>0.05). The ISH and PCR results showed
that RhCMV infected a wide range of tissues, including immune system, respiratory tract,
gastrointestinal tract and urinary tract, and the positive signal of RhCMV in mother monkeys
was stronger than that of in their own fetal monkeys. In addition, we also found that RhCMV
positive signal also existed in mother’s reproductive organs, including uterus, ovary and
placenta. The above results indicate that RhCMV can infect all age groups monkeys and hide
in a wide range of organs, and can transmit vertically to their own fetal. The infection
regularity of indigenous RhCMV rhesus monkey model can provide support for further
understanding the persistence and pathogenesis mechanism for HCMV. Furthermore, these
results can remind the researchers to give more attention to the potential and adverse effect induced by RhCMV when doing reproductive work and some other research work.