Effects of two EBV-LMP1 variants on proliferation characteristics of CNE1 cell line

AIM: To investigate the possible effect of different Latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) variants on proliferation characteristics of a human well-differentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell line CNE1. METHODS: The plasmids which carried EBV-LMP1 gene cloned from B95-8 lymphocyte (B95-8-LMP1) and NPC tissues (CAO-LMP1) were introduced into CNE1 by liposomal transfection. Expression of LMP1 in CNE1 was identified by RT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. Different Effects of the two EBV-LMP1 variants on proliferation characteristics of CNE1 including growth curve, cell cycle distribution and clony-forming efficiency were investigated by means of crystal violet staining proliferation assay, flow cytometry and plastic plate clony-forming assay, respectively. RESULTS: Two transfected cell lines stably expressing different LMP1 variants were established successfully. Either of the two LMP1 variants increased CNE1 growth rate, proliferation index (PI) and clony-forming rate significantly and CAO-LMP1 had more significant growth-promoting effect on CNE1 than B95-8-LMP1. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded from the study that CAO-LMP1 promotes CNE1 proliferation more effectively than B95-8-LMP1.