Effect of human cytomegalovirus and glucose on adhesion molecules expression in cultured human endothelial cells

The aim this study was to investigate the effect of glucose on the induction of adhesion molecules by Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in endothelial cells in vitro. Primary cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) pretreated with 16.5 mmol/l glucose for 24 hrs were infected with a HCMV strain with tropism for endothelial cells. Expression of adhesion nmolecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and ELAM-1) was measured by flow cytometry. While high concentrations of glucose per se activated the expression of all three adhesion molecules tested, HCMV induced the expression of ICAM-1 only. Moreover, it potentiated the expression of ICAM-1 in glucose-pretreated HUVECs, while it did not affect at all or slightly suppressed the glucose-activated expression of VCAM-1 and ELAM-1. The modulatory effect of glucose and HCMV on the expression of adhesion molecules in endothelial cells may be applied in increased vulnerability to patients with diabetes mellitus or atherosclerosis.