Antigenic analysis of human cytomegalovirus isolates from Japanese women and infants.

The antigenic differences among human cytomegalovirus (CMV), two laboratory strains (Davis, AD 169), isolates from pregnant women's cervical secretions, mother's milk, infants' throat swabs and urine were analyzed by means of the plaque reduction assay using human sera which were assumed to contain monotypic antibodies by primary infection and boosted antibodies by reinfection or reactivation of the latent virus. In the cross-neutralization tests, there were no remarkable differences among the CMV strains examined. Moreover, in the neutralization kinetics, normalized kappa values among the strains constantly exceeded 80. Therefore, it is suggested that the human CMV strains examined in the study were serologically identical or very closely related.