T cell leukemia I oncogene expression depends on the presence of Epstein–Barr virus in the virus- carrying Burkitt lymphoma lines

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We used a modified subtractive suppression hybridization to identify cellular genes that show altered expression in Burkitt lymphomas (BLs) in the presence of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). Comparison of the gene expression patterns of an EBV-negative clone of the originally EBV-positive BL line Akata, with its NeoR-EBV derivative, revealed a significant difference in the expression of the T cell leukemia 1 oncogene (TCL-1). Subsequent expression studies showed that the original EBV-positive Akata line and the EBV-reconstituted derivative expressed high levels of TCL-1, whereas the EBV-negative variant showed only a low level of expression. Two other independently established EBV-positive BLs (Mutu and OMA) that have also thrown off EBV showed a similar decrease in TCL-1 expression after virus loss. Reinfection with NeoR-EBV restored the TCL-1 expression levels in the EBV loss variants to as high a level as the originally EBV-positive lines. High-resolution immunostaining showed that TCL-1 was localized in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Our findings suggest that high expression of TCL-1 is necessary for the development of the BL phenotype. In view of the fact that germinal center B cells, regarded as the progenitors of BL, do not express TCL-1, we suggest that constitutive expression of this oncogene occurs by genetic or epigenetic changes in the EBV-negative BLs. In the originally EBV-positive BLs, the ability of the virus to switch on TCL-1 expression would obviate this need.