Abstract
We investigated whether anti-human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) antibody in patients with recent episodes of HCMV infection binds to specific target antigen (s) of HCMV. A total of 330 human sera with different IgG and IgM anti-HCMV antibodies were studied for their reactivity with HCMV structural polypeptides which were separated by SDS-PAGE and electrotransferred to nitrocellulose paper. IgG anti-HCMV antibodies reacted with at least 13 structural polypeptides with molecular weights of 150, 145, 120, 86, 78, 64, 60, 50, 43, 42, 39, 32, and 30 kD in the patient's sera and that of healthy donors. The band detected by immunoblotting intensified and the number of target antigens detected by anti-HCMV antibodies increased after HCMV infection. However, in our study no specific target antigens were observed in sera of patients who had recent episodes of HCMV infection.
