Antinuclear antibodies in the sera of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
We studied the production of heterophile antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) in the sera of 50 patients, 20 with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and 30 with other head and neck cancers (laryngeal cancer and maxillary cancer), before and after radiation therapy. A higher incidence of ANAs was found in the sera of patients with NPC and ANA production in these patients was higher after radiation therapy. We therefore performed in vitro experiments to explore the mechanisms of ANA production in the serum of postirradiated NPC patients. X-ray-irradiated NPC-derived cells (NPC-KT) produced a large amount of Epstein-Barr virus (NPC EBV) compared with non-irradiated NPC-KT cells. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma EBV-infected lymphocytes produced high levels of ANAs. These data suggest that lymphocytes infected by EBV from NPC cells may produce ANAs in the sera of NPC patients.
Takimoto
T
T
Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, Kanazawa University, Japan.
Ishikawa
S
S
Masuda
K
K
Tanaka
S
S
Yoshizaki
T
T
Umeda
R
R
D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000032:analysis*; D002460:Cell Line; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral / Q000528:radiation effects; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000472:pathogenicity; D006801:Humans; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000473:pathology; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000473:pathology; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000528:radiation effects
D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear