A potentially fatal hemophagocytic syndrome has been noted in patients with malignant lymphomas, particularly in EBV-infected T cell lymphoma. Cytokines, such as interferon-␥ (IFN-␥ ), TNF-␣ , and IL-1 ␣ , are elevated in patients' sera. To verify whether infection of T cells by EBV will upregulate specific cytokine genes and subsequently activate macrophages leading to hemophagocytic syndrome, we studied the transcripts of TNF-␣ , IFN-␥ , and IL-1 ␣ in EBV-infected and EBV-negative lymphoma tissues. By reverse transcription PCR analysis, transcripts of TNF-␣ were detected in 8 (57%) of 14 EBV-infected T cell lymphomas, higher than that detected in EBV-negative T cell lymphoma (

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Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) can infect T lymphocytes and manifests as hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH),