Cell-mediated immunity against herpes simplex virus envelope, capsid, excreted, and crude antigens.

Cell-mediated immunity to herpes simplex virus envelope, capsid, excreted, and crude antigens was studied by in vitro lymphocyte stimulation tests during 198 recurrent attacks in 69 patients. Excreted antigen caused no blast transformation. Envelope and capsid antigen-induced lymphocyte stimulation was at the maximum 7 to 14 days postinfection, declining thereafter to a rather constant level in 1 to 2 months. The lowest levels were measured just a few days before a new attack. In persons with frequent relapses, the fluctuation was more rapid and stimulation index levels stayed higher, although no protective level seemed to exist. Cultures stimulated with the crude antigen in autologous serum showed rapid increases and declines in the stimulation index values, contrary to those grown in agamma serum, in which the stimulation level stayed rather constant up to 1 year postinfection.