The occurrence and incidence of a characteristic banding abnormality in a No. 14 chromosome has been studied in Burkitt-lymphoma-derived and certain other EB virus-associated lymphoblastoid cell lines. The abnormality was readily detected in 7 out of 7 Burkitt lines, and when present could be seen in 100% of cells with recognizable No. 14 chromosomes. In contrast, the abnormality was not observed in 775 cells from 31 infectious mononucleosis-derived lines nor in 450 cells from 18 lines obtained from cord blood lymphocytes experimentally transformed by EB virus in vitro. The significance of the abnormality as an indication of cells transformed by the virus in vivo is discussed, and the importance of this considered in relation to a possible oncogenic role for EB virus in man.

Transformation to continuous cell lines has been studied in cultures of peripheral leuckocytes from infectious mononucleosis (IM) patients and in co-cultures of IM leukocytes and foetal cord blood leukocytes of opposite sex. The transformed cells in the co-cultures were of mixed origin with foetal cells usually predominating. Neutralizing antisera to EB virus markedly reduced or abolished the incidence of transformation in IM leukocyte cultures. This effect was not due to cytotoxicity and followed the pattern seen with cultures where transformation was known to depend on the inter-cellular transfer of infectious EB virus. The findings suggest that EB virus is harboured in peripheral lymphocytes of IM patients as a non-productive unexpressed infection which is activated to produce virus in vitro, the particles released then infecting neighbouring cells to give transformed lines. The differences between this mechanism and the one whereby lines arise in culture from malignant cells of Burkitt's lymphoma are considered, and their significance is discussed.

The utility of a new instrument for rapid virus quantitation, the Virus Counter, was evaluated in a blind study conducted at three sites. This instrument is a substantially improved version of the original academic research instrument described previously by Stoffel et al. (2005a). The addition of hydrodynamic focusing, a self-contained fluidics system and customized software for system control and data analysis has resulted in a commercially viable and available design.

A continuous cell line has been established in culture from a pathological lymph node of an owl monkey with reticuloproliferative disease after inoculation with E B virus. The cells grow in suspension in clumps or as single individuals and show the characteristic features of lymphoblasts with some differentiation to reticulum cells; their karyotype is typical of one sub-species of owl monkey. A herpes virus has been found in the cells and has been identified as E B virus in two types of immunofluorescence test using two different specific antisera; this identification was confirmed by the ability of the virus to transform normal human cord-blood lymphocytes and make them grow as

Five of the lymphoblastoid lines were found to be diploid, and 2 tetraploid; the karyotypes were essentially normal. The squamous epithelial nature of the cells in the nude-mouse-grown NPC tumours was established by light and electronmicroscopy, and 3 tumours were found to be near-triploid, and 2 near-diploid. The cells of the near-triploid tumours contained grossly abnormal chromosomes but those of the near-diploid tumours showed only relatively minor changes. Although abnormalities were observed which were specific for cells from each individual tumour, no discernible change was common to cells from all the tumours.