Transcription of latent and replicative Epstein-Barr-virus genes in bone-marrow and peripheral-blood mononuclear cells of healthy donors.
Reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction has been used to analyze the expression of 2 latent genes (EBNA-1 and LMP-1) and one replicative gene (BZLF-1) of Epstein-Barr virus in mononuclear cells from bone marrow and peripheral blood of healthy donors. EBV-gene transcription was detected in 8 out of 15 bone-marrow samples. Among these, 5 allowed the detection of latency-associated transcripts in the absence of BZLF-1 expression. Only one sample showed positivity for expression of both latent and lytic genes. In 2 cases, BZLF-1 was the only transcript detected. In peripheral blood, 4 out of 7 samples showed evidence of EBNA-1 transcription; LMP-1 was expressed in 5 samples, and in 2 cases concomitant expression of EBNA-1 and BZLF-1 was detected. These results provide a direct demonstration by RT-PCR of EBV-gene transcription in bone-marrow-resident viral infected cells and suggest, in contrast to previous studies on peripheral blood, that LMP-1 and BZLF-1 are frequently transcribed also in absence of EBV-related disease. The heterogeneous viral gene expression found makes it difficult to define a pattern of viral latency in vivo which coincides with that described for lymphoblastoid or Burkitt's-lymphoma cell lines at different stages of differentiation.
Gonnella
R
R
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Patologia, Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
Angeloni
A
A
Calogero
A
A
Farina
A
A
Santarelli
R
R
Gentile
G
G
Arcese
W
W
Martino
P
P
Mandelli
F
F
Frati
L
L
Faggioni
A
A
Ragona
G
G
D000818:Animals; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000821:virology*; D002460:Cell Line; D005814:Genes, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
C037662:EBV-associated membrane antigen, Epstein-Barr virus; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins