Pointing to the pathogenic potential of aberrantly expressed syncytin-1, we have found deregulation of transcription and splicing of the ERVWE1 in biopsies of testicular seminomas.
Prompted by the observation of retroviral particle formation in teratocarcinoma cell lines and the consistent finding of antibodies against Gag and Env proteins encoded by human endogenous retrovirus (HERV)-K genomes in the sera of patients with classical seminoma, we studied ovarian and testicular germ cell tumours, their precursor lesions, dysgenetic gonads, and trophoblast lesions for expression of HERV-K sequences by in situ hybridization using radioactive and non-radioactive probes.