Analysis of immortalization of normal T lymphocytes by Epstein-Barr virus

本研究旨在探讨EB病毒（EBV）对正常T淋巴细胞永生化的影响。对于感染实验，我们使用携带新霉素抗性基因（neo-EBV）的重组EBV（Akata株）。虽然正常的外周血T淋巴细胞不能被neo-EBV感染，但原代胸腺细胞在病毒暴露后显示EBNA 1表达。然而，以下的选择文化没有产生永久生长的胸腺细胞感染新的EBV，即使在培养基中的白细胞介素2（IL-2）的存在下，可能是因为病毒感染的胸腺细胞往往进入病毒裂解周期。这些结果表明，EB病毒感染胸腺细胞的结果是允许的，而不是潜伏的，在体内感染，这可能与EB病毒诱导的T淋巴细胞增生性疾病，我们目前正在研究是否EBNA 2，或-3A，或-3C基因可以改变EB病毒感染的T细胞系，其生长依赖于IL-2迄今为止，如在获得IL-2的非依赖性或更恶性的表型。

This study aimed to investigate the unclarified Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) activity on normal T-lymphocyte immortalization. For infection experiments, we used recombinant EBV (Akata strain) carrying the neomycin-resistance gene (neo-EBV). Although normal peripheral T lymphocytes could not be infected by neo-EBV,primary thymocytes revealed EBNA1 expression after virus exposure. However, the following selection culture did not yield permanently growing thymocytes infected with neo-EBV even in the presence of interleukin 2 (IL-2) in culture medium, probably because virus-infected thymocytes tended to enter into the virus lytic cycle. These results suggest that EBV infection of thymocytes results in the permissive, not latent, infection in vivo, which may be associated with EBV-induced T-lymphoproliferative disorders.We are currently studying whether EBNA2, or-3A,or-3C gene can alter EBV-infected T-cell lines, the growth of which is dependent on IL-2 so far, such as in terms of aquisition of IL-2 independency or more malignant phenotype.