Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lazzi, Stefano
• Bellan, Cristiana
• Amato, Teresa
• Palummo, Nazzareno
• Cardone, Concetta
• D'Amuri, Alessandro
• De Luca, Fabio
• Beyanga, Medard
• Facchetti, Fabio
• Tosi, Piero
• Leoncini, Lorenzo

Titel

Kaposi's sarcoma–associated herpesvirus/human herpesvirus 8 infection in reactive lymphoid tissues: a model for KSHV/HHV-8–related lymphomas?

Ist Teil von

• Human pathology, 2006, Vol.37 (1), p.23-31

Ort / Verlag

New York, NY: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2006

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We set out to analyze the presence of Kaposi's sarcoma–associated herpesvirus (KSHV)/human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) in different neoplasms occurring in East Africa, a region characterized by a high KSHV/HHV-8 seroprevalence rate and endemic Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). Our results suggest that, in endemic regions of Africa, KSHV/HHV-8 is predominantly associated with KS, independently of HIV status. During the course of this study, other important information came to light. We found the presence of KSHV/HHV-8 in 2 cases of lymph nodes partially involved by Burkitt's lymphoma and KS and in 1 case of multicentric Castleman disease. Our immunophenotypic and molecular data seem to suggest 2 different mechanisms of viral infection are at work in lymphoid cells. On one hand, when B cells show a latent phase infection with KSHV/HHV-8, after the germinal center reaction, naive B cells become resting memory B cells, similarly to Epstein-Barr virus–infected B cells. On the other hand, when lytic genes such as vIL6 are expressed in naive B cells, they may be driven to differentiate into plasmablasts without undergoing germinal center reaction. Interestingly, among KSHV/HHV-8–positive cases, in those in which there was also lymphoma, the neoplastic cells were negative for KSHV/HHV-8. This further confirms that KSHV/HHV-8 is involved in the neoplastic transformation of only certain types of lymphoma, probably in relation to their precursor infected cell. In conclusion, the maturation stage of KSHV/HHV-8–positive B cells as well as the type of viral infection may well determine the morphological, phenotypic, and clinical characteristics of KSHV/HHV-8–associated lymphomas.