Fifteen EBV positive PEL (12 AIDS-related, one post-transplant, two arising in immunocompetent hosts) were subjected to molecular characterization of the viral genes EBNA-1 and LMP-1, as well as definition of EBV type-1/type-2.
LMP1 mRNA, expressed in latencies II and III, was present in three cases of PEL, although at very low levels that were not detectable at the protein level by immunohistochemistry.