Cytomegalovirus infection of vascular endothelial cells alters production of GM-CSF and G-CSF.

Infection of human umbilical vein endothelial cells with the clinical isolate of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV; at a multiplicity of infection of 2) severely suppresses the production of granulocyte-CSF and granulocyte-macrophage-CSF at late stages of infection (6 days post infection onwards). The effect was produced by actively multiplying virus which indicates that HCMV antigen expression is important for this suppression. The suppression in the production of these two cytokines was not due to their accumulation inside the cell nor to cell damage or lysis after infection.