EXPRESSION OF AN EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS RECEPTOR AND EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS-DEPENDENT TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN NASOPHARYNGEAL EPITHELIAL-CELLS

The human herpes virus Epstein-Barr (EBV) is clearly associated with A frican Burkitt's lymphoma and the undifferentiated form of nasopharyng eal carcinoma (NPC). EBV has been implicated in other types of lymphom a, as well as in some human breast cancers, However, its route of entr y into epithelial cells is incompletely understood, We report here evi dence that there is no gene alteration in the SCR 1 and 2 exons of EBV R/CR2 in human embryonic nasopharyngeal epithelial (HENE) cells and NP C cells and that SCR 1 and 2 mRNA could be detected in HENE cells, dif ferent differentiated NPC cell lines and well-differentiated NPC biops ies. None of 15 cases of poorly differentiated NPC cryosections has SC R 1 and 2 mRNA. We also provide evidence that transformation of HENE c ells results from exposure to infectious EBV and that transformation i s dependent on the presence of phorbol ester. These data suggest that expression of SCR 1 and 2 of EBVR/CR2 may be associated with replicati on of EBV and support the notion of direct infection and transformatio n of human nasopharyngeal epithelial cells destined to evolve into the carcinoma by EBV through EBVR/CR2. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.