Presence and transcriptional state of HHV-6 in specimens obtained from HT patients and controls.

1Results obtained by qPCR analysis of total DNA extracted from fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNA) or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), amplifying U94 and U42 genes. Virus presence is expressed as number of positive samples on the total number of tested samples (percentage of positivity in parenthesis). Virus load is expressed as the mean value of genome copy number in the positive samples ± SD. Differences were statistically significant in HT vs control FNAs (82% vs 10%, p≤0.001) and PBMCs (95% vs 37%, p≤0.01). Virus load was also significantly different in HT vs control FNAs (p≤0.05) and PBMC (p≤0.05).2HHV6 transcriptional state was analyzed by RT-qPCR performed on RNA extracted by the HHV6 DNA-positive specimens. Virus replication is defined as Latent (expression of U94 alone) or Active (expression of U94 and U42), and expressed as number of positive samples on the total number of tested samples.