FIG. 9.

Estimated copies of EBV miRNAs per cell in NPC biopsy samples. The average copy number per cell for each BART miRNA was calculated and compared to the NPC cell line C666-1. RT-PCR was used to estimate EBV-positive (EBER1 or LMP1) or total cells (beta actin) in each biopsy sample based on the EBER1, LMP1, or actin RT-PCR signals from known numbers of C666-1 cells (for details see Materials and Methods). The copy numbers for each miRNA (Fig. 5) were then divided by the estimated cell number to derive the estimated copy number per C666-1 cell equivalents in each NPC biopsy sample. The values obtained for the five NPC biopsy samples were averaged, and the mean values, with the standard deviations, are plotted.