Immortalization of human B-lymphocytes by epstein-barr virus.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is able to immortalize human B-lymphocytes with high efficiency. This property underlies the role of EBV in a number of human diseases. First, EBV is the causative agent of infectious mononucleosis, which is a benign proliferation of B-lymphocytes (1). Second, EBV is involved in the etiology of Burkitt's lymphoma (2) and of invasive B-lymphocyte proliferations found in immunosuppressed individuals (3).