Studies on transformation of human esophageal fibroblasts mediated by a retroviral vector containing the E6E7 ORFs of human papillomavirus type 16 / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the etiological role of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) infection in the development of esophageal cancers.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A recombinant retrovirus containing the E6E7 ORFs of HPV16 was packaged and human fetal esophageal fibroblasts were infected. The tumorigenecity of the fibroblasts was tested in SCID mice in synergy with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Human esophageal fibroblasts infected with the recombinant retrovirus induced sarcomas in SCID mice, the existence and expression of E6E7 ORFs was confirmed in the sarcomas. Fibroblasts cultured from the sarcoma were demonstrated heteroploid by cytoflowmetry. However, tumors were not observed in human fetal esophagus infected with such virus.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>These results revealed that the established recombinant retroviral system can successfully mediate the transference of HPV16 E6E7 genes, and such system is applicable to researches on tumorigenesis of HPV.</p>