Viral involvement in Hodgkin's disease: detection of clonal type A Epstein-Barr virus genomes in tumour samples.
Thirty-five cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD) were analysed for the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) DNA. EBV genomes were detected in 11/35 cases while none of the cases was positive for HHV-6. Ten of the EBV-positive cases were subsequently analysed using a probe for the terminal region of the virus; the results suggested that the EBV-infected cells were clonally expanded. EBV subtypes specific DNA amplification was used to demonstrate that EBV subtype A, and not subtype B was present in the EBV-positive cases. The age distribution of the EBV-positive cases indicated a statistically significant trend for an increase in positivity with increasing age. This is the first indication that EBV is significantly associated with any subset of HD patients.
Gledhill
S
S
Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Glasgow, UK.
Gallagher
A
A
Jones
D B
DB
Krajewski
A S
AS
Alexander
F E
FE
Klee
E
E
Wright
D H
DH
O'Brien
C
C
Onions
D E
DE
Jarrett
R F
RF
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D005784:Gene Amplification; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
D004279:DNA, Viral