It is essential to identify donors who have not been infected with HCMV in order to avoid transmission of HCMV to human recipients of transfusion products or of organs. In the present study, we tested the reliability of seronegativity as an indicator for the lack of HCMV exposure of human subjects. Sixty six HCMV seronegative individuals have been identified and their PBMC were tested in ELISPOT assays for the presence of HCMV-specific CD4, CD8 T – and B – memory lymphocytes. Fifty seven percent of the HCMV seronegative subjects displayed CD4 and CD8 T cell memory in addition to HCMV specific memory B cells providing three independent lines of evidence for having developed immunity to HCMV. Fifteen percent of the 66 seronegative donors possessed CD4 and CD8 memory cells to HCMV, however, in the absence of memory B cells, and 16% had CD4 memory cells in isolation. Only 12% of the seronegative donors showed neither T- nor B- cell memory to HCMV qualifying as immunologically naïve to the virus. The data suggest that measurements of serum antibodies frequently fail to reveal HCMV exposure of humans, which may be better identified by direct detection of HCMV-specific memory lymphocytes.

CITATION INFORMATION: Sundararaman S, Terlutter F, Nowacki T, Caspell R, Lehmann P. Direct Detection of T and B Memory Lymphocytes Reveals HCMV Exposure That Serum Antibodies Fail to Identify. Am J Transplant. 2016;16 (suppl 3).

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