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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2006, p. 2109-2118, Vol. 44, No. 6
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.02064-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
and
Kazuo Yanagi2*
Yamanashi Institute of Health, Fujimi 1-7-31, Kofu, Yamanashi 400-0027, Japan,1 Herpesvirus Laboratory, Department of Virology I, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan,2 The Master's Program of Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan,3 Public Health Research Institute of Kobe City, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture 650-0046, Japan4
Received 3 October 2005/ Returned for modification 1 January 2006/ Accepted 6 March 2006
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It is not known whether an HSV-1 RFLP variant isolated at a certain frequency in a particular population is due to an RFLP variation that arose in that population or that migrated in from a different outside population. Analyses of the geographic distributions of distinct RFLP variants in neighboring geographic regions or populations in which many generations have lived continually in their birthplace communities should provide data on the origins of the variants because HSV-1 transmission is by intimate contact between individuals. Japan is suitable for such a geographical study because it was almost completely closed to the rest of the world for two and a half centuries before the late 19th century. Furthermore, people were obliged to live within their birthplace neighborhood by their ancient social systems for more than 13 centuries. In addition, until recently, the mountainous terrain on the Japanese islands kept local communities stable.
In the present study we analyzed 636 clinical HSV-1 isolates from 16 prefectures on the four Japanese islands (Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa) where Japanese have lived continuously since prehistoric times and, for comparison, from the Tokyo metropolitan area into which many people have moved from throughout Japan.
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The standard laboratory HSV-1 strain F was kindly provided by B. Roizman (University of Chicago). HSV-1 viruses, from virus stocks that had been prepared shortly after isolation, were propagated on Vero cells (42, 43) in Eagle minimal essential medium supplemented with 5% calf serum in a humidified incubator containing 5% CO2 (35, 39, 40, 45).
The geographic distribution of the 636 HSV-1 isolates used in these studies is shown in Fig. 1 and Table 1: (i) 44 isolates from Shikoku Island (40 from Tokushima Prefecture and 4 from Kagawa Prefecture), (ii) 99 isolates from Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu Island, (iii) 14 isolates from Okinawa Island, (iv) 81 isolates from the Chugoku Region (21 from Yamaguchi Prefecture, 19 from Hiroshima Prefecture, and 41 from Shimane Prefecture), (v) 86 isolates from the Kinki Region (33 from Shiga Prefecture and 53 from Osaka Prefecture), (vi) 112 isolates from the Chubu Region (60 from Aichi Prefecture, 7 from Shizuoka Prefecture, and 45 from Yamanashi Prefecture), (vii) 98 isolates from the Tohoku Region (17 from Fukushima Prefecture, 45 from Miyagi Prefecture, and 36 from Iwate Prefecture), and (viii) 102 isolates from the Tokyo metropolitan area.
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FIG. 1. Geographic locations of the areas of the 16 prefectures on Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa islands in Japan where clinical HSV-1 isolates were collected for the studies reported here. The numbers in parentheses indicate the percentages of the HSV-1 BgKL RFLP variant determined in the present study.
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TABLE 1. Geographic distribution of the HSV-1 RFLP variant BgKL in Japan
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Virus DNAs and restriction endonuclease cleavage analyses.
Vero cells were infected at a multiplicity of infection of
0.1. Infected cells were freeze-thawed and clarified by a low-speed centrifugation. The supernatant was centrifuged at 15,000 rpm (27,000 x g) for 1 h, and the pellet was suspended in phosphate-buffered saline and then incubated with 0.25 mg of proteinase K (Seikagaku Kogyo, Tokyo, Japan)/ml at 37°C for 30 min in the presence of 0.25% sodium dodecyl sulfate and 1 mM EDTA in Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.8). DNAs were extracted with phenol and chloroform. DNAs were digested with restriction endonucleases (from Takara Shuzo, Japan, and New England Biolabs, Massachusetts) and analyzed by gel electrophoresis in 0.8% agarose (Seakem ME; FMC, Rockland, Maine) slab gels in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.8) containing 2 mM EDTA and 20 mM sodium acetate.
Statistical methods. P values were calculated by using the Fisher exact test and are given in parentheses in the text, unless otherwise indicated.
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FIG. 2. (A) Restriction endonuclease BglII, SalI, and KpnI cleavage profiles of DNAs from seven clinical HSV-1 isolates. The restriction enzymes used are indicated at the bottom of each gel. The clinical isolates (place of isolation) of the HSV-1 DNA in each lane are as follows: lane 1, RK (Tokyo); lane 2, IW20 (Iwate); lane 3, IW51 (Iwate); lane 4, FO-48 (Fukuoka); lane 5, FS467 (Fukushima); lane 6, TS64 (Tokushima); lane 7, TS108 (Tokushima); lane 8, F strain (United States). The designations of the HSV-1 F strain DNA fragments are marked at the right of each gel. (B) Physical map of the restriction endonuclease fragments of HSV-1 DNA showing the BglII and SalI fragments. The heavy line in the BglII map denotes the BglII K fragment. The KpnI map shows only the KpnI M fragment. The genomic structure of HSV-1 DNA is schematically depicted in the top two maps. The L and S components, the unique regions UL and US, and the terminal repeat sequences "ab" and "ca" are marked. The terminal sequences "a," "b," and "c" are inversely repeated at the junction of the L and S components. The L and S components invert relative to each other, producing four HSV-1 isomeric DNAs (8, 22, 30).
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FIG. 3. DNA cleavage profiles of HSV-1 strains using BglII, SalI, KpnI, BamHI, HindIII, EcoRI, HpaI, and XbaI. Strains TS108 (an HSV-1 BgKL clinical isolate from Tokushima), RK (a non-BgKL HSV-1 clinical isolate from the Tokyo metropolitan area), and F (HSV-1 strain F) were analyzed in parallel gels. Lane 1, RK; lane 2, TS108; lane 3, F.
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TABLE 2. Association of the SalI RFLP variations SaCFJM, SaD/EL and SaGHM with the BgKL variation
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Of the three BgKL variants without the SaCFJM variation, one isolate (TK509 from Tokyo) had the SaD/EL variation, another (OS366 from Osaka) had the SaGHM variation, and the third (Y79-98 from Yamanashi) had neither the SaCFJM nor the SaD/ELvariation (Table 2).
We also analyzed the frequencies of SalI RFLP variations in non-BgKL clinical isolates. The SaCFJM variation was detected in 23.3% non-BgKL isolates, which is significantly lower than its frequency (97.2%) in BgKL isolates (P < 0.001). Only one clinical isolate, RM45 from Kyushu, of the 52 SaCFJM variants with a normal size Bgl II K fragment had the SaD/EL variation (Table 2), in contrast to 100% of the BgKL SaCFJM isolates. None of the remaining 171 non-BgKL isolates without the SaCFJM variation had the SaD/EL variation (Table 2), indicating that SaD/EL variation is very rare in non-BgKL isolates, in contrast to BgKL variants. The SaGHM variation was detected in 22.0% non-BgKL isolates (Table 2). The difference between BgKL and non-BgKL isolates in the frequency of the SaGHM variation is statistically significant (P < 0.001).
These results, taken together, indicate that the SaCFJM, SaD/EL, and SaGHM variations are common in the majority of BgKL isolates but not in non-BgKL isolates.
RFLP analysis of HSV-1 BgKL variants using restriction endonuclease KpnI. We further characterized BgKL variants using KpnI because the KpnI cleavage map of the HSV-1 F strain has been reported (14). Of the BgKL variants studied, 96.3% had lost the KpnI M fragment found in the F strain and instead had a truncated fragment of 4.1 kb between the P and Q/R fragments (Fig. 2 and 3 and Table 3). This KpnI RFLP variation is designated the KpMS variation in the present study. In contrast, only 9.0% non-BgKL isolates had the KpMS variation. These results indicate that the frequency of the KpMS variation is much higher in BgKL isolates than in non-BgKL isolates (P < 0.001), and the majority of BgKL isolates are BgKL:KpMS.
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TABLE 3. Association of the KpnI RFLP variation KpMS with the BgKL variation
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Of the isolates from Tokushima, Shikoku Island, 60.0% were BgKL variants, and of those from Kagawa, Shikoku, two of four were BgKL variants. The BgKL frequency, 59.1%, on Shikoku Island is significantly higher than the nationwide average (P = 0.00002) and is the highest of all of the regions examined (Table 1). Of the isolates from Osaka, 49.1% were BgKL variants (Table 1). Of the isolates from the Chugoku region, 44.4% were BgKL variants; in particular, 47.4% were from Hiroshima, 46.3% were from Shimane, and 38.1% were from Yamaguchi (Table 1). The BgKL frequency differences between Shikoku and Osaka (P = 0.414), Shikoku and Chugoku (P = 0.137), and Osaka and Chugoku (P = 0.724) are not significant (Table 4). The BgKL frequency in Shikoku-Chugoku-Osaka (49.4%), however, is significantly higher than the nationwide average (P < 0.001).
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TABLE 4. Differences in the frequencies of BgKL variants: comparison of Shikoku, Osaka, and Chugokua
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TABLE 5. Differences in the frequencies of BgKL variants: comparison of Kyushu and Okinawa with Shikoku, Chugoku, and Osakaa
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Of the isolates from Shiga, 27.3% were BgKL variants, a lower frequency than in Osaka (Table 1). The BgKL frequency differences between Shiga and Shikoku (P = 0.010 by the Fisher exact test, P = 0.011 by chi-square test), Shiga and Shikoku-Osaka (P = 0.015 by the Fisher exact test, P = 0.017 by the Chi square test), Shiga and Shikoku-Chugoku (P = 0.030 by the Fisher exact test, P = 0.033 by the chi-square test), and Shiga and Shikoku-Osaka-Chugoku (P = 0.022 by the Fisher exact test, P = 0.031 by the chi-square test) are statistically significant (Table 6). The differences between Shiga and Osaka (P = 0.070) and Shiga and Chugoku (P = 0.097) are not (Table 6).
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TABLE 6. Differences in the frequencies of BgKL variants: comparison of Shiga with Shikoku, Chugoku, Osaka, Kyushu, and Okinawaa
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TABLE 7. Differences in the frequencies of BgKL variants: comparison of Chubu, Aichi, and Yamanashi with Shiga, Osaka, Chugoku, Kyushu, and Okinawaa
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TABLE 8. Differences in the frequencies of BgKL variants: comparison of Tohoku and Chubu-Tohoku with Chubu, Shiga, Chugoku, Kyushu, and Okinawaa
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Similarly, the differences between Okinawa and Shiga (P = 0.042) (Table 6) and between Okinawa and Shikoku-Osaka-Chugoku (P < 0.001) (Table 5) are statistically significant, but the differences between Okinawa and Chubu (P = 0.225) (Table 7), Okinawa and Tohoku (P = 0.370) and Okinawa and Chubu-Tohoku (P = 0.371) (Table 8) are not. The results indicate that the BgKL frequency in Okinawa is similar to that in Chubu-Tohoku.
Taken together, these results indicate that the frequency of BgKL is high in the Shikoku (59.1%), Osaka (49.1%), and Chugoku (44.4%) (with a 49.4% average for the Shikoku-Osaka-Chugoku area), lower in Kyushu (31.3%) and in Shiga (27.3%), and lowest in Chubu (12.5%), Tohoku (9.2%), and Okinawa (0.0%), as depicted diagrammatically in Fig. 4.
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FIG. 4. Diagrammatic representation of the frequencies of HSV-1 BgKL variants in different geographic areas, indicating a geographic gradient distribution of the BgKL variant. The HSV-1 BgKL frequency level in geographic areas is indicated by black (high), gray (lower), and white (lowest) tones in accordance with the statistical significance of the frequency differences between adjacent areas. The P values for the geographic differences in the BgKL frequency are as follows: between Shikoku-Osaka-Chugoku and Kyushu (P = 0.004), between Kyushu and Okinawa (P = 0.020), between Shikoku-Osaka-Chugoku and Shiga (P = 0.022), and between Shiga and Chubu-Tohoku (P = 0.013). The broken line in the Chubu-Tohoku area indicates the location of Tokyo and the Kanto region, between the Chubu and Tohoku regions.
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Geographical distribution of multiple HSV-1 BgKL, SaCFJM, SaD/EL, SaGHM and KpMS variations. The frequency of HSV-1 clinical isolates with the BgKL variation and both the SaCFJM and the SaD/EL variations was 100% in Kyushu, Chugoku, and Shikoku; 95.2% in Osaka-Shiga; 91.7% isolates in Chubu-Tohoku; and 95.2% in Tokyo (Table 2). Thus, there are no significant differences in the frequency of HSV-1 isolates with these three RFLP variations in these regions.
The frequency of HSV-1 isolates with both the BgKL and the SaGHM variations was 92.9% in Shikoku, 93.3% in Chugoku, 90.5% in Osaka-Shiga, 90.9% in Kyushu, 75.0% in Chubu-Tohoku, and 90.5% in Tokyo (Table 2), indicating no statistically significant difference in these regions in the frequency of HSV-1 isolates with these two RFLP variations.
In addition, the frequency of HSV-1 isolates with both the KpMS and the BgKL variations was 100% in Kyushu, Chugoku, Shikoku, Osaka-Shiga, and Tokyo, and was 66.7% in Chubu-Tohoku (Table 3), indicating no statistically significant difference in these regions in the frequency of HSV-1 with the Bgl II and KpnI RFLP variations.
In summary, these results indicate that the frequency of the BgKL variant alone is a good measure of the frequency of the HSV-1 BgKL:SaCFJM:SaD/EL:SaGHM:KpMS variant in western, central and northeast Japan.
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The major conclusions of these studies are as follows. First, the frequency of the BgKL variant in HSV-1 isolates is 27.0% in Japan, as determined from 636 HSV-1 isolates obtained from 16 different geographic areas. The length of the BglII K fragment in BgKL variants may be due to the loss of the BglII cleavage site between the K and Q fragments in the HSV-1 Justin strain DNA BglII cleavage map (14), although the Q fragment between K and O fragments has not been described in the F strain. This high frequency of the BgKL variant in Japan led us to detailed geographic and structural analyses of this RFLP variant.
Second, the striking picture of the geographic data on HSV-1 BgKL frequency is that there are two gradually decreasing gradient patterns, shown schematically in Fig. 4. One gradient is from Shikoku to the west, since the BgKL frequecy differences between Shikoku and Kyushu and between Kyushu and Okinawa are statistically significant. The other gradient is from Shikoku east to Shiga, Chubu, and Tohoku. The BgKL frequency difference is significant between Shikoku and Shiga and between Shiga and Tohoku. It has been reported (31) that the fraction of HSV-1 isolates with mutations at restriction enzyme cleavage sites, called HSV-1 "subtypes" in that report, in isolates from the Chugoku-Shikoku area was higher than in isolates from the northernmost island of Hokkaido. However, Japanese people only started to settle in Hokkaido Island about a century ago, late in the19th century, and this history may have affected the epidemiological data of Hokkaido. This report of large-scale analyses of HSV-1 isolates from many regions of Japan, where hundreds of generations of people have lived continuously, has shown that the frequency of the BgKL variants gradually decreases in a gradient from the Shikoku-Chugoku-Osaka region both to the west and to the east.
Third, 89.9% of the BgKL isolates have several additional RFLP variations that have been identified using SalI to detect the BgKL:SaCFJM, BgKL:SaD/EL, and BgKL:SaGHM variants. The SaCFJM variation indicates that the cleavage sites between both the SalI J and C fragments and the SalI F and J fragments have been lost. There is a SalI cleavage site in both the L component terminal repeat "b" sequence, in which the J and C fragments are separated by SalI, and the L internal inverted repeat "b'" sequence, in which the F and J fragments are separated; the base sequence of "b'" is identical to that of "b" except for its orientation (Fig. 2B) (14, 30). Therefore, The SaCFJM variation is interpretable by a single mutation in the "b" repeat sequence.
Furthermore, 96.3% of BgKL isolates have the KpnI cleavage pattern of the KpMS variant. It remains to be studied whether the BgKL variation is related to the genomic groups or recombinants of HSV-1 that have recently been described (20).
Fourth, the frequencies of HSV-1 BgKL:SaCFJM:SaD/EL:SaGHM:KpMS variants in BgKL variants was not different in HSV-1 clinical isolates from the eastern and western regions of Japan. Therefore, the extremely high frequency of BgKL isolates with these SalI and KpnI cleavage variations means that the BgKL frequency can be used as a measure of the frequency of HSV-1 variants with multiple mutations, at least at the BglII, SalI, and KpnI cleavage sites (i.e., the BgKL:SaCFJM:SaD/EL:SaGHM:KpMS variant) in Japan. Taking into consideration that the northern coast of Chugoku faces the Sea of Japan and the southern coast of Shikoku faces the Pacific Ocean, the bidirectional gradient of the BgKL:SaCFJM:SaD/EL:SaGHM:KpMS variant frequency suggests that a given HSV-1 variant can be geographically dispersed radially, unless the dispersion is blocked by a geographic barrier such as an ocean.
Fifth, it is possible that the geographical gradient of the HSV-1 BgKL:SaCFJM:SaD/EL:SaGHM:KpMS variant arose in multiple regions independently, but with different frequencies in different regions. This possibility seems unlikely. It was previously hypothesized that clustering of mutations at restriction endonuclease cleavage sites depends on geographically and racially distinct areas (32). However, the data reported here show such a big geographic difference in the frequency of the BgKL variant on the Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa islands, inhabited for hundreds of generations by an almost racially homogeneous people. Moreover, the geographic frequency gradients along the Japanese islands do not seem to be explicable in terms of the multiple independent origins of this variant. It is more likely that the BgKL:SaCFJM:SaD/EL:SaGHM:KpMS variant was dispersed from Shikoku Island to the surrounding regions and then to more distant regions. Consistent with this suggestion, Osaka has been the biggest center of commercial activity in western Japan for centuries. Shikoku Island also has held strong ties with the Chugoku region because they are only separated by the narrow Seto-naikai Inland sea and there are many small islands between the two regions. There was no statistical difference in BgKL frequency between the Tokyo metropolitan area and the 15 other regions examined in the present study, notwithstanding the geographic location of Tokyo in Eastern Honshu, supporting the suggestion above of BgKL dispersion. The BgKL dispersion suggested by these data and the historical and geographical conditions described here agree with the previously noted possibility that random mutations are conserved and dispersed in different populations, resulting in the clustering of RFLP variations (25, 26).
For millennia, the Japanese people have inhabited the Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu islands and have been relatively isolated from other nations. Immigration and commerce were prohibited and foreigners were not allowed to enter Japan from the 17th through the late 19th century. In addition, most Japanese lived in and around their birthplaces throughout their lives because of ancient social systems. These historical conditions maintained stable local communities until a century ago and may have played a role in the geographic distribution of the HSV-1 BgKL variant.
Finally, the findings presented here are the first epidemiologic data on the geographic dispersion of HSV-1. Why was the geographic dispersion of HSV-1 not reported previously? The major reason is the combination of the ubiquitous and high prevalence of HSV-1 in all populations examined in the world and the latency reactivation mode of infection of HSV-1 that lets HSV-1 mutants remain in the ganglions of hosts for their entire lives, escaping immunological surveillance. This allows more and more HSV-1 mutants to accumulate in every human population. The accumulation of such a great number of different HSV-1 mutants makes it hard to monitor the geographic dispersion of a particular HSV-1 mutant or variant, if it does not have a readily recognizable marker such as the BgKL marker. In addition, the slow speed of HSV-1 spread in a human population due to the mode of transmission by close physical contact between an infected person and a susceptible individual also hampers analyses of HSV-1 spread from one regional population to another. The gradient geographic profile of BgKL has been found in the present study because the proportion of the BgKL variant in HSV-1 isolates is high and because most of the HSV-1 isolates examined in this large-scale study were collected before the days of modern rapid and long-range mass transportation in Japan where local communities were geographically well maintained.
The conclusion based on the experimental results in the present study that an HSV-1 variant is dispersed geographically has implications for future studies on the epidemiology and diversification of HSV-1. There are probably many other distinct HSV-1 variants dispersing from different geographical regions to other regions in the world. Wide-ranging international dispersion of HSV-1 variants is now being accelerated due to a rapidly growing number of travelers, which will facilitate recombination between different variants. Thus, accelerated, wide diversification of HSV-1 may have an impact on the biological or pathological properties of HSV-1. Whether the BgKL variant has a virologic property that contributes to its geographic dispersion remains a subject for future study. Whether and how the BgKL variati is related to the recently reported HSV-1 genomic groups and the inter-genomic group recombinants (20) is also an intriguing question.
It has been shown in the present study that the frequency of the RFLP BgKL variant in clinical HSV-1 isolates reflects the BgKL:SaCFJM:SaD/EL:SaGHM:KpMS variant frequency and is a function of geography. The present study is the first to report differences in the prevalence of an HSV-1 virus containing multiple mutations between many regions where people of the same nation and race have lived for hundreds of generations. The results of the present study, that the BgKL frequency decreases in a gradient from Shikoku along the Japanese Islands, suggest that the BgKL variant was dispersed from Shikoku Island to neighboring regions then further afield. The implications of this investigation for future studies on HSV-1 are manifold.
We thank T. Funabashi, Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Tokyo, and M. Futamura, Aichi Prefectural Colony Hospital, for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Aichi; M. Hayashi, Hayashi Dermatology Clinic, for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Tokyo; T. Ikushima, Shizuoka Institute of Environment and Hygiene, for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Shizuoka; M. Niimura, Jikei Medical University, for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Tokyo; T. Ogino, Hiroshima University, for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Hiroshima; H. Shioda for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Tokushima; H. Yoshitake, School of Medicine, Ryukyu University, for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Okinawa; Fukushima Medical School Hospital for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Fukushima; Kanto-Teishin Hospital for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Tokyo; Momoyama Hospital for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Osaka; National Zentuji Hospital for HSV-1 clinical isolates from Kagawa; and R. Kitamura for technical assistance.
Financial support for this research was provided by grants-in-aid from the Yamanashi Institute of Health and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Deceased after the completion of this study. ![]()
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