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Epstein–Barr virus transforms precursor B cells even before immunoglobulin gene rearrangements

Nature volume 309, pages 369–372 (1984)Cite this article

Abstract

The very early stages of the human B-cell differentiation pathway are poorly understood, primarily because of the lack of appropriate permanent cell lines. Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is a putative human oncogenic virus which transforms human B cells in vitro into continuously proliferating cells1. It has been believed that EBV transforms mature B cells2,3 but recently, transformation of immature pre-B-cell lines has been reported4–6, suggesting that EBV might also transform cells much earlier in the B-cell lineage. We report here the establishment of cell lines transformed by EBV at various stages of the B-cell differentiation pathway. Interestingly, two lines showed the complete absence of immunoglobulin synthesis and the lack of immunoglobulin gene rearrangement despite containing EBV genome and surface markers of B cells. Our results indicate that EBV can infect and tranform cells of the B lymphocyte lineage even before immunoglobulin gene rearrangement.

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Author notes

  1. Shigeru Katamine

    Present address: Department of Bacteriology, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Nagasaki, 852, Japan

  2. Tasuku Honjo: Department of Genetics, Osaka University School of Medicine, Osaka 530, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bacteriology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Sendai, 980, Japan

    Shigeru Katamine, Masayuki Otsu, Kotaro Tada, Shigeru Tsuchiya, Tetsuo Sato, Nakao Ishida, Tasuku Honjo & Yasushi Ono

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  1. Shigeru Katamine
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  2. Masayuki Otsu
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  4. Shigeru Tsuchiya
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  5. Tetsuo Sato
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  6. Nakao Ishida
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  8. Yasushi Ono
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Katamine, S., Otsu, M., Tada, K. et al. Epstein–Barr virus transforms precursor B cells even before immunoglobulin gene rearrangements. Nature 309, 369–372 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/309369a0

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