Introduction
Betaherpesviruses such as human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), human herpesvirus-6A and 6B (HHV-6), and human herpesvirus-7 (HHV-7) replicate more slowly than alphaherpesviruses, are highly species-specific for infection, and establish latency in progenitor cells of the bone marrow and monocytes of the blood. HCMV has been the prototype of the betaherpesviruses for studies of gene expression and regulation. In cell culture, HCMV strains have been adapted to preferentially infect and replicate in fibroblasts. However, low passage isolates replicate well in other cell types, such as endothelial cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. In the host, HCMV replicates in macrophages, dendritic cells, colonic and retinal pigmented epithelial cells, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells, neuronal cells, glial cells, hepatocytes, and trophoblasts (Fish et al., 1995, 1996; Hertel et al., 2003; Ibanez et al., 1991; Lathey and Spector, 1991; Maidji et al., 2002; Schmidbauer et al., 1989; Sinzger et al., 1993, 1995, 1996). In contrast, HHV-6 and HHV-7 infect CD4+ lymphocytes (Takahashi et al., 1989) as well as monocyte/macrophages. Although HCMV can be transferred into and out of polymorphonuclear leukocytes via cell-to-cell contact, these cells do not permit viral replication (Grundy et al., 1998; Sinclair and Sissons, 1996; Sinzger and Jahn, 1996).
Various animal betaherpesviruses have been used as models for HCMV infection. CMVs infecting seven different mammalian hosts (humans, chimpanzees, African green monkeys, rhesus macaques, guinea pigs, rats and mice) have been investigated in some level of detail. Murine CMV (MCMV) infection of mice has been the most widely used animal model.