Functional analysis of EBV in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells.

A membrane invasion culture system was used to study the ability of EBV to enhance invasion and migration of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells. Semi-reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis of matrix proteinases and angiogenic factors from EBV-infected, or EBV-positive (EBV+), cells demonstrated different degrees of elevated gene expression. In our animal model, EBV+ tumors grew faster and larger than EBV-free, or EBV-negative (EBV-), tumors and also had clonal EBV terminal repeat sequences.