Abstract:ObjectiveTo investigate the association between serum antibodies or glycoprotein B (gB) genotype of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) with liver damage or birth defect.MethodsFrom January 2009 to December 2010, 337 hospitalized infants whose serum HCMV IgG antibody was positive and HCMV DNA in urine exceeded 500 copies/mL were included in the study. HCMV antibodies (IgG,IgM) of infants and mothers were detected by capture enzymelinked immunosorbent assay; HCMV DNA in infants were detected by realtime polymerase chain reaction; HCMV from clinical specimens were cultured in human embryonic lung fibroblasts; HCMV gB was genotyped by nested PCRrestriction fragment length polymorphism.ResultsOf 337 infants infected with HCMV, serum HCMV antibodies of 124 were both IgM(+) and IgG(+), liver damage rate and birth defect rate were higher in infants whose mothers’HCMV IgG were negative than that were positive(86.42% vs 65.12% for liver damage, 40.74% vs 34.88% for birth defect, P<0.01); Serum HCMV antibodies were IgM(-) and IgG(+) in 213 infants,liver damage rate in infants whose mothers’serum antibodies were IgG(+) was not significantly different compared with that were IgG(-)(53.85% vs 66.89%, P>0.05),but birth defect rate in IgG(-) group was higher than IgG (+) group (28.38% vs 23.08%, P<0.05). Isolation rate of HCMV from urine was 50.00%(31/62) in infants whose HCMV IgG were positive and urine HCMV DNA ≥104 copies/mL. gB genotype of 8 randomly selected HCMV strains(7 were from infants with liver or brain damage) were all gB1, compared with AD169 or TOWNE strain, DNA sequence homology was 94.8% and 97.0% respectively, homology of DNA sequence among 8 strains was 98.5%,and amino sequence was 99.4%.ConclusionThe liver damage and birth defect are lower in infants whose mothers’ HCMV IgG were positive than that were negative. Urine HCMV DNA ≥104 copies/mL in infants can be a marker for HCMV infection. gB1 may be the main genotype in infants’ liver and brain damage.