Objective: To study the mechanism by which Epstein-Barr (EB) virus infects human epithelial cells.
Methods: Large-scale culture of marmoset lymphocytes B958 was carried out to extract and condense EB virus therein. Titrated by lymphocytes from fetal umbilical blood, the EB virus of high concentration was used to infect immortalized human epithelial cell line Hacat, followed by genomic DNA extraction from the Hacat cells and amplification of the special DNA sequence Bam HIw fragments of EBV genomic DNA by PCR. Southern blotting and in situ hybridization were employed to confirm the result of PCR.
Results: The results of PCR, Southern blotting and in situ hybridization all indicated that high-concentration EBV could infect Hacat cell line, but the rate of infection was rather low.
Conclusion: There is an unknown pathway of infection for EBV entry into the epithelial cells other than the mediation by CR2 or pIgR.