Macrophages Escape Inhibition of Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I-Dependent Antigen Presentation by Cytomegalovirus

ABSTRACTThe mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV)m152- andm06-encoded glycoproteins gp40 and gp48, respectively, independently downregulate major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I surface expression during the course of productive MCMV infection in fibroblasts. As a result, presentation of an immediate-early protein pp89-derived nonapeptide toH-2Ld-restricted CD8+cytotoxic T cells is completely prevented in fibroblasts. Here we demonstrate that MCMV-infected primary bone marrow macrophages and the macrophage cell line J774 constitutively present pp89 peptides during permissive MCMV infection to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). In contrast to fibroblasts, expression of them152andm06genes in macr…