Detection of EBV transcripts in EBV-transformed T-cell lines. (A) and (B) Northern blot analysis on 10 μg of total RNA isolated from the EBV-transformed T cell NC5 (lane 1), the EBV-transformed T cell TC (lane 2), a T-cell lymphoma Jurkat (lane 3), a EBV-LCL (lane 4), or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (B, lane 5) was performed using a 470-bp cDNA fragment specific for EBNA-1 (A) or a 406-bp cDNA fragment specific for LMP-1 (B). An equal amount of RNA was loaded in each lane as controlled by the intensity of the 28S and 18S bands after ethidium bromide labeling. (C) The detection of the EBV transcripts was performed by RT-PCR using the EBNA-1 primers amplifying a 470-bp fragment, the EBNA-2 primers amplifying a 177-bp fragment, and the LMP-1 primers amplifying a 406-bp fragment, described above on, respectively, an EBV-LCL (lanes 1 to 3), an EBV-transformed T cell NC5 (lanes 4 to 6,) an EBV-transformed T cell TC (lanes 7 to 9), or a T-cell lymphoma Jurkat (lanes 10 to 12). As a control for DNA contamination, RNA samples that were processed identically, but in which the reverse transcriptase had been omitted, were amplified by PCR, no positive bands were detected.