Different Epstein-Barr virus-B cell interactions in phenotypically distinct clones of a Burkitt's lymphoma cell line

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) biopsy cells and early passage BL cell lines have been reported as showing an unusual type of virus-cell interaction; at least two EBV latent proteins appear not to be expressed. Serial passage of such lines is often accompanied by a broadening of virus latent gene expression and a corresponding change in the cell surface/growth phenotype towards that shown by in vitro transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). The sequence of events, both viral and cellular, involved in this transition needs to be defined properly. In the present work, phenotypically distinct cell clones have been derived from early passage cultures of a BL cell line in phenotypic transition, thereby giving access to relatively stable cell populations through which the different EBV-B cell interactions within the parental line can be studied. Clones retaining the original BL biopsy cell phenotype (CD10/CD77-positive, activation antigen/adhesion molecule-negative) expressed the virus-encoded nuclear antigen EBNA 1 but not any of the other known latent proteins, EBNAs 2, 3a, 3b, 3c, -LP and latent membrane protein (LMP). Other clones which had developed an LCL-like phenotype (CD10/CD77-negative, activation antigen/adhesion molecule-positive) now expressed all the above latent proteins and also contained significant numbers of cells in lytic cycle. Phenotypic change occurring within the parental BL cell line itself was initiated in a small subpopulation of cells in which the virus-encoded proteins EBNA 2 and LMP were transiently induced to an unusually high level of expression; this was accompanied by the first detectable changes in cell surface phenotype, namely the increase of cellular adhesion molecules. Some control over EBNA 2/LMP expression then appeared to be re-imposed since the presumed clonal descendents of these cells stably expressed EBNA 2 and LMP at much reduced levels typical of those seen in conventional LCLs.