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Detection of human herpesvirus‐8 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from adult Japanese patients with multicentric Castleman's disease
Author(s) -
Yamasaki Satoshi,
Iino Tadafumi,
Nakamura Minoru,
Henzan Hideho,
Ohshima Koichi,
Kikuchi Masahiro,
Otsuka Teruhisa,
Harada Mine
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2141.2003.04120.x
Subject(s) - peripheral blood mononuclear cell , pathogenesis , reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction , virology , real time polymerase chain reaction , reverse transcriptase , biology , nested polymerase chain reaction , polymerase chain reaction , messenger rna , microbiology and biotechnology , virus , lymph , gene , immunology , medicine , pathology , in vitro , biochemistry
Summary. Human herpesvirus‐8 (HHV‐8) encodes viral homologues of cellular genes, including viral interleukin 6 (vIL‐6), which induces endogenous human IL‐6 (hIL‐6) secretion. Unregulated overproduction of hIL‐6 in lymph nodes (LN) is thought to be responsible for the systemic manifestations of multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD). In the present study, we assessed the presence of HHV‐8 and HHV‐8‐encoded viral homologues in LN and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from adult Japanese patients with MCD. HHV‐8 DNA was amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and was detected in LN from 13 out of 16 MCD patients (81%). HHV‐8 DNA was also detected in PBMC from six out of seven patients (86%) whose LN were positive for HHV‐8 DNA. Because mRNA could not be successfully extracted from LN sections that were either formalin‐fixed or embedded in paraffin, we examined the expression of mRNA for HHV‐8‐encoded viral homologues, such as vIL‐6, vBCL‐2, vCyclin‐D and viral G‐protein‐coupled receptor (vGPCR) by nested reverse transcription (RT)‐PCR in PBMC from 10 MCD patients. However, mRNA of these HHV‐8‐encoded viral homologues was not detected in any patients tested. Although our results do not indicate a role for HHV‐8‐encoded viral homologues in the pathogenesis of MCD, they do suggest that HHV‐8 infection may be associated with MCD in adult Japanese patients.