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An Efficient and Simple Method to Establish NK and T Cell Lines from Patients with Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection
Published on: March 30, 2018
Quantitative analysis of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific CD8+ T cells in patients with chronic active EBV infection
Naomi Sugaya1, Hiroshi Kimura, Shinya Hara
1Department of Pediatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Japan.
Abstract:
To clarify the pathogenesis of chronic active Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, EBV-specific CD8+ T cells were enumerated, by use of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A*2402-restricted tetramers, in 8 patients with chronic active EBV infection, 10 patients with infectious mononucleosis, and 16 EBV-seropositive healthy control subjects. In most of the patients with chronic active EBV infection, EBV-specific CD8+ T cells were not detected. Of note, latent membrane protein 2-specific CD8+ T cells were not detectable in any patients with chronic active EBV infection. In contrast, EBV-specific CD8+ T cells were detected in patients with infectious mononucleosis and in healthy control subjects. Low frequencies of EBV-specific CD8+ T cells may be one of the immunological features of chronic active EBV infection.

