title: Presence of Epstein-Barr virus genome in the bone marrow of patients with hematopoietic malignancies.
abstract: The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in mononuclear cells from bone marrows with diverse types of hematopoietic malignancies. Viral repeated sequences (BamHI-W region) were detected in 42 of 82 (51%) hematopoietic malignancies, including polycythemia vera, but not in nonneoplastic cases. EBV-positive cases were found to consist of various histological types. We did not detect any EBV PCR product in the peripheral blood. The EBV BamHI-Y, -H region, encoding EBV nuclear antigen 2 DNA, which is a single-copy gene in the viral genome, was detected in only 13 of 42 BamHI-W-positive cases, suggesting that the copy number of the EBV genome differed in each case. In all cases, the PCR band was verified by Southern blot hybridization using specific EBV probes. Whether the infected virus is an etiologic agent of the malignancy or merely a latent infection cannot be determined by the PCR assay performed under these conditions. These results, however, suggest that a novel form of EBV latent infection is present in the bone marrow of patients with hematopoietic malignancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pathology, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koide
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fukuchi
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takagi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomoyasu
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tsuruoka
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gomi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000821:virology*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D015245:Deoxyribonuclease BamHI; D005260:Female; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000821:virology*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D015245:Deoxyribonuclease BamHI