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Polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemical analyses of formalin-fixed temporal arteries from 10 pathologically verified cases of giant cell arteritis did not reveal varicella zoster virus antigen or DNA.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) revealed herpes simplex virus (HSV) and varicella zoster virus (VZV) DNA in human nodose and celiac ganglia. This is the first detection of VZV DNA in ganglia of the human autonomic nervous system. The ability of reactivated VZV to produce serious, sometimes fatal neurological disease in the absence of rash, raises the possibility that VZV reactivation from autonomic ganglia might be involved in visceral disease.

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Previous analyses using in situ hybridization alone or together with PCR have yielded conflicting results regarding the cell type in which latent varicella-zoster virus (VZV) resides. We separated human trigeminal ganglia (TG) into neuronal and nonneuronal fractions, followed by primary and nested PCR to quantitate VZV DNA at the single cell level. Both TG from each of eight cadavers were dissociated and separated into neuronal and nonneuronal cell suspensions by differential filtration. Analysis of the neuron fraction (5,000 neurons per sample) revealed VZV DNA in 9 of 16 samples, with copy numbers ranging from 1 to 12, whereas only 2 of 16 nonneuronal cell samples were positive for VZV DNA, with 1 copy each. Further analysis of 10 samples of 100 neurons and the corresponding nonneuronal cell fractions from each TG of a single subject revealed VZV DNA in 3 of 10 samples of the left TG (range, 2 to 5 copies) and in 1 of 10 samples of the right TG (2 copies) but in none of the 20 nonneuronal cell fractions. These data indicate that latent VZV DNA is present primarily, if not exclusively, in neurons, at a frequency of two to five copies per latently infected neuron.