A Comprehensive Analysis of Human Endogenous Retroviruses HERV-K (HML.2) from Teratocarcinoma Cell Lines and Detection of Viral Cargo in Microvesicles

About 8% of our genome is composed of sequences from Human Endogenous Retroviruses (HERVs). The HERV-K (HML.2) family, here abbreviated HML.2, is able to produce virus particles that were detected in cell lines, malignant tumors and in autoimmune diseases. Parameters and properties of HML.2 released from teratocarcinoma cell lines GH and Tera-1 were investigated in detail. In most experiments, analyzed viruses were purified by density gradient...