Human immune responses to herpes simplex virus, varicella-zoster and cytomegalovirus in vitro.

The cell principally responsible for lymphocyte proliferation to herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella-zoster (VZ) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) has been shown to be a T cell of helper phenotype. Lymphocytes from a proportion of proliferation-positive normal individuals produced anti-viral antibody in vitro. Although in some cases, and at some time-points, the antibody was specific for the priming virus, in others, antibodies to more than one virus were detected. Similarly, some T-cell clones proliferated specifically to the priming virus, whereas others were not specific for the virus used in the priming culture. Two clones helped the production of HSV-specific antibody, one by autologous, the other by both autologous and allogeneic non-T cells.