Yao Q Y, Czarnecka H, Rickinson A B
Cancer Research Campaign Laboratories, Department of Cancer Studies, University of Birmingham, UK.
Int J Cancer. 1991 May 10;48(2):253-7. doi: 10.1002/ijc.2910480217.
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has potent cell-growth-transforming activity for human B lymphocytes in vitro, yet appears to persist in the circulating B-cell pool of virus carriers in vivo as a largely asymptomatic (i.e., non-growth-transforming) infection. The true nature of this infection, and the identity of the cells involved, remain to be determined. Studies of Lewin et al. (1987) have suggested (i) that the frequency of virus-infected cells in the circulating B-cell pool differs in different buoyant density fractions, being most abundant in the low-density population, and (ii) that rare virus-infected cells with the capacity for direct in vitro outgrowth to EBV-transformed cell lines are segregated within the high-density population. We have repeated this work using B-cell fractions from a much larger panel of asymptomatic virus carriers and find (i) that the incidence of virus-infected B cells is not significantly different between high- and low-density fractions, and (ii) that virus-infected cells from both fractions give rise to EBV-transformed cell lines in culture predominantly through a 2-step mechanism of virus replication and secondary infection rather than by direct outgrowth.
爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒（EBV）在体外对人B淋巴细胞具有强大的细胞生长转化活性，但在体内似乎以基本无症状（即非生长转化）的感染形式持续存在于病毒携带者的循环B细胞库中。这种感染的真正性质以及所涉及的细胞身份仍有待确定。Lewin等人（1987年）的研究表明：（i）循环B细胞库中病毒感染细胞的频率在不同的浮力密度组分中有所不同，在低密度群体中最为丰富；（ii）具有直接在体外生长为EBV转化细胞系能力的罕见病毒感染细胞被隔离在高密度群体中。我们使用来自更多无症状病毒携带者的B细胞组分重复了这项工作，发现：（i）高密度和低密度组分之间病毒感染B细胞的发生率没有显著差异；（ii）来自这两个组分的病毒感染细胞在培养中主要通过病毒复制和二次感染的两步机制产生EBV转化细胞系，而不是通过直接生长。
