Epstein-Barr Virus Gene Expression in Lymphomas Induced by the Virus in the Cottontop Tamarin

Abstract

Inoculation of cottontop tamarins (Saguinus oedipus oedipus) with a large standard dose of EBV regularly gives rise to multiple EBV genome-positive B cell lymphomas which appear within 14 to 21 days. In the majority of cases the disease is fatal; in the few surviving animals the tumours regress over a period of 8 to 14 weeks (1). These lymphomas are very similar to the human B cell malignancies which arise in organ transplant patients by the following criteria. Both types of lesion are described histologically as large cell malignant lymphomas with well circumscribed “geographical necrosis”, neither lesion shows a consistent chromosomal abnormality, individual tumours are mono- or oligoclonal in origin and both types of lesion have a capacity to regress(l). Material from human “post-transplant” lymphomas is rarely available in sufficient quantity for detailed protein analysis. For this reason we sought to examine EBV gene expression in the tamarin animal model system.