Relationship between the malignant mesothelioma and simian virus 40 in China: a study of 17 cases / 中华病理学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate whether simian virus 40 (SV40) was related to patients of malignant mesothelioma in China.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Paraffin-embeded samples of 17 patients with malignant mesothelioma were collected. After isolation of DNA from paraffin blocks, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses were performed using three different sets of primer for detection of SV40 large T antigen gene. These samples were also immunohistochemically evaluated for expression of SV40 TAg protein with two different anti-SV40 Tag (Pab101 and Ab-2).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Only one of the three primer pairs successfully amplified SV40 genome in three malignant mesothelioma samples. No immunopositive staining for SV40 TAg was found in any of the samples.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The study shows that malignant mesothelioma in China may be independent of SV40 infection.</p>