Epstein-Barr virus transforms precursor B cells even before immunoglobulin gene rearrangements.
The very early stages of the human B-cell differentiation pathway are poorly understood, primarily because of the lack of appropriate permanent cell lines. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a putative human oncogenic virus which transforms human B cells in vitro into continuously proliferating cells. It has been believed that EBV transforms mature B cells, but recently, transformation of immature pre-B-cell lines has been reported, suggesting that EBV might also transform cells much earlier in the B-cell lineage. We report here the establishment of cell lines transformed by EBV at various stages of the B-cell differentiation pathway. Interestingly, two lines showed the complete absence of immunoglobulin synthesis and the lack of immunoglobulin gene rearrangement despite containing EBV genome and surface markers of B cells. Our results indicate that EBV can infect and transform cells of the B lymphocyte lineage even before immunoglobulin gene rearrangement.
D000818:Animals; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000032:analysis; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002143:Callitrichinae; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002460:Cell Line; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D005333:Fetus; D005796:Genes; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / Q000235:genetics; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic / Q000032:analysis
D000954:Antigens, Surface; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains; D007136:Immunoglobulins; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic