title: Absence of paramyxovirus RNA in cultures of pagetic bone cells and in pagetic bone.
abstract: It has been proposed that Paget's disease of bone is caused by the infection of bone cells with one or several paramyxoviruses. In this study we used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which allows the detection of very low levels of a target nucleic acid sequence, to study cultures of pagetic bone cells and samples of pagetic bone. Oligonucleotide primers were designed to flank a sequence of the nucleocapsid genome of measles virus and canine distemper virus (CDV). Within this fragment there were contrasting restriction endonuclease sites specific to measles or CDV that allowed identification of the original template. We were unable to detect paramyxovirus RNA in four strains of human bone cells outgrown from pagetic bone and one strain derived from an uninvolved site of a patient with Paget's disease. Furthermore, paramyxovirus sequences were not detected in cDNA prepared from six samples of pagetic bone biopsies. The work presented here further questions the role of measles and CDV in the abnormal remodeling observed in Paget's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University, Liverpool, England.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Birch
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: W D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ralston
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gallagher
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001483:Base Sequence; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000166:cytology / Q000382:microbiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004217:Distemper Virus, Canine / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008459:Measles virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010001:Osteitis Deformans / Q000382:microbiology*; D010006:Osteoblasts / Q000382:microbiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012367:RNA, Viral