title: The prevalence of human endogenous retroviruses in the plasma of major burn patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Approximately 8% of the human genome is composed of retroviral sequences, which are known as human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) and, have been implicated in both health status and disease. Recently, indirect evidence for a possible role of retroviral elements in the systemic response to stress signals has been provided by several studies. In the present study, we sought to evaluate the relationship between HERVs and major burn in humans.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated the prevalence of HERV families by reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) in cell-free plasma samples from patients with burns and from normal individuals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Different prevalences of HERV families were observed in the plasma samples from the burn patient group and normal group. Compared with the prevalences of HERV-W and HERV-K in the normal group, in the burn patient group, the prevalence of HERV-W was significantly lower (P<0.001), but the prevalence of HERV-K was higher (P=0.059).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study of the prevalences of HERVs revealed that the activation of certain HERV families may be influenced not only by burns but also by the initial treatments that were used to address these injuries.
authors: Ilsong Institute of Life Science, Hallym University, Anyang, Gyeonggi-do 431-060, Republic of Korea.
authors: Yun-Jung
authors: YJ
authors: Lee
authors: Byung-Hoon
authors: BH
authors: Jeong
authors: Jae-Bong
authors: JB
authors: Park
authors: Hyung-Joo
authors: HJ
authors: Kwon
authors: Yong-Sun
authors: YS
authors: Kim
authors: In-Suk
authors: IS
authors: Kwak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001483:Base Sequence; D002056:Burns / Q000097:blood / Q000821:virology*; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6; D012367:RNA, Viral; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
keywords: Cytokines; Human endogenous retroviruses; Major burn patient; Plasma