title: Molecular characterization of long terminal repeat of porcine endogenous retroviruses in Chinese pigs.
abstract: Pigs offer an unlimited source of xenografts for humans. However, vertically transmitted Porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) poses an infectious risk in the course of pig-to-human transplantation. In this study, we characterized PERV long terminal repeat (LTR) sequences from three species of Chinese pigs Banna minipig inbred (BMI), Wu-Zhi-Shan pig (WZSP), and Neijiang pig (NJP-A), and compared them with those of known PERVs (PERV-A, PERV-B, PERV-C, PERV-NIH, and 293-PERV-43). Genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of the Chinese pigs was used for PCR-amplification, cloning, and sequencing of LTRs. The sequences of BMI and WZSP LTRs were found identical with those of PERV-A and PERV-B, while that of NJP-A LTR was found close to those of PERV-C and PERV-NIH. The gammaretroviral nature of PERV LTRs from Chinese pigs was proved. These LTRs contained also promoter elements including enhancer-like repeats comparable with those of other PERVs. These findings suggested that PERVs from Chinese pigs were similar to PERV-A and PRV-B. Moreover, this study provided new data for the evaluation and selection of pigs to be used in the xenotransplantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, P.R. China.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000821:virology; D020079:Terminal Repeat Sequences; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins