No abstract

No abstract

SUMMARYBy DNA-DNA reassociation kinetic analysis, less than one genome equivalent per cell of human CMV-DNA was found in two lymphoblastoid cell lines, one derived from the peripheral blood of a congenitally infected male infant at the age of 2I months (D4 cell line), the other obtained by co-cultivation of lethally X-irradiated cells from the 9-month lymphoblastoid cell line previously described by Joncas et al. (1975) with cord blood leukocytes of a female newborn (MI cell line). Human CMV antigens could not be detected and virus could not be rescued from these cells by co-cultivation with fully permissive human fibroblasts. It may be that the CMV-DNA is defective. Epstein-Barr virus DNA as well as EBNA and EBV-EA antigens were present in these cell lines. Both lines express surface markers characteristic of thymus-independent, B lymphocytes.The CMV-DNA of the CMV-DU strain, isolated from this infant's urine five times successively from the age of I day to 3o months, appears to be closely related to the DNA of the AD-I69 strain by reciprocal hybridization and by electrophoretic pattern analysis of the restriction enzyme cleavage products. Experimental attempts to transform cord blood leukocytes with this urine strain of CMV before or after u.v. irradiation have so far failed.

EBV-EA antibodies are consistently present in the serum of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (1, 2) (NPC)2 and Burkitt's lymphoma (3) (BL) at least in the late stages of the disease. In contrast, only 50 to 70% of patients with infectious mononucleosis (4–6) and less than 10% of normal children and adults have detectable serum EA antibodies (4–6). These antibodies in almost all cases of infectious mononucleosis fall to undetectable levels within a year or two after the disease and in patients with Burkitt's tumor disappear during remission but will rise again if a relapse occurs (4–7). It is of interest, therefore, that a high prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) antibodies was found in patients with ataxia telangiectasia (AT) in whom the incidence of lymphoma is increased (8). Materials and Methods. Patients. All 16 patients had well documented AT with progressive cerebellar ataxia, oculo cutaneous telangiectases, and pedigrees consistent with autosomal recessive inheritance.