title: Increased antibody responses to Herpes virus papio (HVP) antigens in pre-lymphomatous baboons (Papio hamadryas) of the Sukhumi high lymphoma stock.
abstract: Antibody responses to Herpes virus papio (HVP) antigens were studied in 21 pre-lymphoma baboons (which subsequently died of malignant lymphoma), 21 paired controls, i.e. age-, sex- and population-matched healthy baboons, and 185 randomly selected healthy baboons of the same population. The sera were all collected at the same time and were tested blind in the fixed-cell indirect immunofluorescence test against HVP viral capsid antigen (VCA)-positive, early antigen (EA)-positive cell targets before and after absorption with HVP. Eleven of the pre-lymphoma sera were anti-EA-positive whereas none of the paired controls contained anti-EA. Anti-VCA titers of pre-lymphoma sera were higher than those of paired controls in thirteen cases. Only in four cases were anti-VCA titers of pre-lymphoma sera lower than those of paired controls. Qualitatively, the same results were obtained when anti-VCA and anti-EA titers of pre-lymphoma sera were compared with respective mean population values. The differences between pre-lymphoma group and control groups, especially in the case of anti-EA, were statistically highly significant. Thus, elevated anti-HVP titers in healthy baboons of the Sukhumi lymphoma-prone stock can be considered as a marker of high risk for development of malignant lymphoma.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D002213:Capsid / Q000276:immunology; D006564:Herpesviridae / Q000276:immunology*; D007106:Immune Sera; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology*; D010215:Papio; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D007106:Immune Sera