Persistent, dynamic-state infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 has been maintained in human T lymphoblastoid (CEM) cells for many months after initial infection with the wild-type virus (HSV0) (input virus/cell multiplicity of 1.0). Persistently infected cells grew as well as uninfected cells, except during occasional periods of crisis (increased viral replication and cytopathic effect). Cells could survive the crisis when they were maintained for twice the usual time interval (8 to 10 rather than 4 to 5 days) before subculture. Interferon was not detectable in the cultures. HSV0 was compared with HSVp1, a small plaque-forming isolate from persistently infected CEM cells. Primary infection of CEM cells with HSV0 at a low input multiplicity (0.01) led to abortive replication, whereas infection with HSVp1 at the same multiplicity resulted in either rapidly lytic or persistent infection depending upon the time interval of subculture. Approximately 55% of plaque-purified clones of HSVp1, as compared with only 5% of HSV0 clones, displayed temperature-sensitive growth in Vero cells. Defective interfering virus was not detectable in uncloned HSVp1 by interference assay. Persistently infected cultures "cured" by treatment with HSV antiserum or incubation at 39 degrees C were resistant to reinfection with HSV but permissive for vesicular stomatitis virus replication, suggesting that these treatments modulated a shift from the dynamic-state of the static-state, latent infection. These studies provide a model for characterization of HSV persistence and latency in a highly differentiated human cell line.