CD11c⁺ DCs are infected at low frequencies by TB40/E and HCMV2006, and survival of CD11c⁺ DCs and PDCs is not decreased after HCMV exposure. HCMV strains TB40/E (A; n = 8; separate donors; MOI, 10-20) or HCMV2006 (B; n = 4; separate donors; MOI, 5-35) or mock were added to CD11c⁺ DCs, and cells were cultured for 84 hours. The fraction of IEA-positive cells was determined by flow cytometry, as described in Figure 1, and was found to be significantly higher with TB40/E than with mock (A; P < .001). (C) Viable PDCs, CD11c⁺ DCs, and control imoDCs were counted by flow cytometry as propidium iodide-negative events and were compared with a known number of added beads, allowing absolute cell numbers to be calculated. Numbers of viable HCMV-exposed DCs were divided by numbers of viable mock-exposed cells. Relative numbers are shown, and all mean ± SEM are indicated (n = 3, n = 7, and n = 7 for PDCs, CD11c⁺ DCs, and imoDCs, respectively; separate donors). The relative number of viable HCMV-exposed CD11c⁺ DCs was significantly higher than of HCMV-exposed imoDCs (P < .05).