Viral infection of human fetal islets of Langerhans. Replication of human cytomegalovirus in cultured human fetal pancreatic islets.

Tissue monolayer cultures of human fetal islets of Langerhans were infected with human cytomegalovirus (CMV). On the fourth day after inoculation, morphologic changes of monolayers were observed, including rounding up and floating of many cells. In addition, after this time CMV late antigen (LA) was detected in the inoculated cells. On the seventh day, CMV was recovered from the culture medium, and infected beta cells were identified by use of a double-label antibody technique. However, CMV apparently did not cause direct destruction of beta cells nor did infection by CMV lead to changes in production of insulin as measured by radioimmunoassay. Thus, despite the fact that CMV can successfully infect a variety of cells in fetal islets of Langerhans, the absence of a significant effect on beta cells does not support the notion that congenital CMV infection is involved in the origin of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.