Persistence of animal and human papovaviruses in renal and nervous tissues.

The papovavirus polyoma persists in the kidneys of mice after a primary infection. In addition polyomavirus was found in a small percentage of normal mouse brains and in brains of mice exhibiting rear leg paralysis. Human papovaviruses JCV and BKV DNA sequences were found in 10% and 34%, respectively, of normal human kidneys from 29 cadavers, but no sequences from either of these viruses were found in brain tissue from 22 of these same cadavers.