Human herpesvirus-6 and epstein–barr virus infections at different histopathological grades of oral squamous cell carcinomas

Background: the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and viral load of epstein–barr virus (ebv) and human herpesvirus-6 (hhv-6) in different histopathologic grades of oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc).methods: forty-five formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue section of oscc patients were analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction for detection of ebv and hhv-6.results: the mean age of the patients was 58.6 years,69% of whom were female,and 31% were male. overall,the positive rate for ebv and hhv-6 were 16.7% and 27.1%,respectively; and the mean viral load ebv was 27.9 × 103 and 38.5 × 103 for hhv-6. no correlation was demonstrated between the viral load of ebv dna (p = 0.35) and hhv-6 (p = 0.38) at the different oscc histopathologic grades.conclusions: these findings neither lend support to the hypothesis that ebv and hhv-6 are directly involved in oscc nor rule out the possibility that these viruses play an indirect role in carcinogenesis in this area. © 2014,isfahan university of medical sciences(iums). all rights reserved.