To characterize the genomic relationship between Japanese EBV and the EBV isolates of other countries, we analyzed the LMP1 nucleotide sequences in EBV positive cell lines and clinical specimens, including five African Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell lines, a Japanese BL cell line, a B-lymphoblastoid cell line, a nasopharyngeal carcinoma hybrid cell line, six gastric carcinoma tissues, two peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and a B95-8 cell line, which contained the prototype EBV genome.
We studied 17 cases of Brazilian BL previously demonstrated to be EBV-positive to determine the EBV type as well as the presence of a characteristic 30 bp deletion within the 3' end of the latent membrane protein-1 (LMP-1) gene that may be important to the pathogenesis of several EBV-associated neoplasms.
We show here that BL cells forming local tumors after xenotransplantation into SCID mice disseminate to lymphoid tissue following introduction of the latent membrane protein I (LMP 1) gene.