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Updated: Dec 19, 2025
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
Comparative study between chronic immune thrombocytopenia patients and healthy population on Epstein-Barr virus
Miao Yan1, Ying Zhang1, Fan Yang1
1Department of Hematology, Peking University First Hospital , Beijing, China.
Background:
Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) has been known to be associated with assorted virus infections. This study aims to investigate the Epstein-Barr virus infection status in chronic ITP patients by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
Methods:
42 chronic ITP patients and 42 healthy donors were retrospectively included via propensity score matching with gender and age. EBV-DNA levels in whole blood of patients and donors were assessed by RT-qPCR, and correlations between virus load and platelet count were analyzed.
Results:
The positive rate of EBV-DNA in lymphocytes of chronic ITP patients was significantly higher than that in donors (52.4% vs 31.0%, p = 0.046). Platelet count [18(8-45)×109/L] of patients with high virus load in lymphocytes was significantly lower than that [51(30-87)×109/L] of patients with low virus load (p = 0.0001), whereas no difference was observed in platelet count between EBV-DNA-positive and negative subgroups of donors (p = 0.984). And a significant inverse correlation was observed between EBV-DNA levels in lymphocytes and platelet count (r = -0.4958, p = 0.019) in patients, which was independent from the presence of platelet-associated IgG.
Conclusions:
EBV infection has a potential role in the development of chronic ITP. Identification and control of this underlying infection should be emphasized in the treatment of chronic ITP.
