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About the cover illustration
About the cover illustration
SHOPE LAPINE PAPILLOMA VIRUS The Shope lapine papilloma virus is probably familiar to most of our readers, but only indirectly and not by name. Many may know it best as the source of the “jackalope” legend. The term “jackalope” was probably coined by taxidermists who reproduced the horned hare of legend by grafting pronghorn horns onto the mounted head (or complete body) of a jackrabbit. Of greater interest, horned hares and horned rabbits actually do exist, and they have many artistic depictions. One is an amusing adaptation of Albrecht Dürer’s Junge Hase. It turns out that cutaneous horns are pretty common in lagomorphs, and they may be long enough and so positioned as to resemble pronghorns or small antlers. They are the result of infection with a papilloma virus, closely related to the virus that causes the less common (and generally smaller) cutaneous horns in people. Of greater importance to most of us, the Shope virus has transformed an epithelial cell line— known as VX-2—that is now used in experimental models of metastasis; a paper using such a model is presented this month on page 27. The only “jackalope” ever seen in the wild by our editorial staff was a cottontail with several horns; unfortunately, it was seen at dusk and no photographs were obtained. We have therefore had to rely on others to provide the images. The main image is of a specimen on display in a small museum in San Antonio, Texas; it was photographed by Stan Spielbusch, who has kindly given permission for its use here. The inset reproduces the adapted image of Dürer’s Junge Hase, and is reproduced with the permission of Stuffe & Nonsense. Dale E. Hammerschmidt, MD Editor-in-Chief
J Lab Clin Med 2006;147:52. 0022-2143/$ – see front matter © 2006 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lab.2005.12.003
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SHOPE LAPINE PAPILLOMA VIRUS The Shope lapine papilloma virus is probably familiar to most of our readers, but only indirectly and not by name. Many may know it best as the source of the “jackalope” legend. The term “jackalope” was probably coined by taxidermists who reproduced the horned hare of legend by grafting pronghorn horns onto the mounted head (or complete body) of a jackrabbit. Of greater interest, horned hares and horned rabbits actually do exist, and they have many artistic depictions. One is an amusing adaptation of Albrecht Dürer’s Junge Hase. It turns out that cutaneous horns are pretty common in lagomorphs, and they may be long enough and so positioned as to resemble pronghorns or small antlers. They are the result of infection with a papilloma virus, closely related to the virus that causes the less common (and generally smaller) cutaneous horns in people. Of greater importance to most of us, the Shope virus has transformed an epithelial cell line— known as VX-2—that is now used in experimental models of metastasis; a paper using such a model is presented this month on page 27. The only “jackalope” ever seen in the wild by our editorial staff was a cottontail with several horns; unfortunately, it was seen at dusk and no photographs were obtained. We have therefore had to rely on others to provide the images. The main image is of a specimen on display in a small museum in San Antonio, Texas; it was photographed by Stan Spielbusch, who has kindly given permission for its use here. The inset reproduces the adapted image of Dürer’s Junge Hase, and is reproduced with the permission of Stuffe & Nonsense. Dale E. Hammerschmidt, MD Editor-in-Chief
J Lab Clin Med 2006;147:52. 0022-2143/$ – see front matter © 2006 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lab.2005.12.003
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