In order to demonstrate whether Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection might play a role in the pathogenesis of interstitial nephritis as suggested by many scholars, EBV DNA was detected in twelve specimens of frozen renal biopsy tissue from patients with interstitial nephritis by using nest polymerase chain reaction (nest PCR). For comparison, frozen renal biopsy tissue from ten patients with minimal change disease was used as control. Southern blot hybridization was used to check the specificity of PCR product. The results showed that eight of twelve frozen renal biopsy specimens from interstitial nephritis patients were EBV DNA positive (66.7%), as compared with negative in all the ten frozen renal specimens from minimal change disease patients. The differences was statistically significant (P < 0.01). The study strongly suggests that EBV infection may play an important role in the pathogenesis of interstitial nephritis. The location of EBV in renal tissue and the mechanism inducing interstitial nephritis by EBV are to be clarified.