EBV-determined nuclear antigen (EBNA)-positive cells in the peripheral blood of infectious mononucleosis patients.
After removal of SRBC rosette-forming T-cells from the peripheral blood, the residual, largely B-lymphocyte fraction of five infectious mononucleosis patients was found to contain 0.5-2% blast cells, positive for the EBV-determined nuclear antigen (EBNA). There was a rough parallelism between the presence of large lymphoblasts in the hematological smear, EBNS-positive large blasts in the B-cell fraction and the ability of the T-cell fraction to exert an EBV-specific lymphocytotoxicity on established cell lines in vitro. EBNA-positive B-cells and EBV-specific killer T-cells disappeared after the acute phase of the disease.
D000208:Acute Disease; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000276:immunology; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic; D000939:Epitopes; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007104:Immune Adherence Reaction; D007244:Infectious Mononucleosis / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
D000956:Antigens, Viral; D000939:Epitopes