In contrast to our previous study showing that HSV-2 infected mouse epithelial cells and keratinocytes up-regulated anti-apoptotic factors such as Bcl-2, Akt and NF-kB early during infection, thus rendering HSV-2 infected cells resistant to apoptosis induction [2], here we found that HSV-2 infection does not protect mouse monocytes from apoptosis and both infected and uninfected cells are subjected to cell death induction. This evidence concerns the gene AKT1 and infection.