The absence of Tat sequences in tissues of HIV-negative patients with epidemic Kaposi's sarcoma.
OBJECTIVE
Tat, an essential regulatory protein of HIV, acts as a growth factor for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-derived cells in culture. We tested the hypothesis that HIV-negative epidemic KS patients who are also at high risk for HIV disease might have been infected with a defective HIV-1 virus that retained the ability to express Tat.


METHODS
We evaluated the presence of Tat sequences in KS tissue and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of HIV-1-negative individuals with epidemic KS who had risk factors for HIV infection by polymerase chain reaction using specific primers for the Tat region of HIV-1.


RESULTS
No evidence for the presence of Tat-1 sequences or for Tat-expressing defective HIV-1 virus was found.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that HIV-1 Tat does not play a role in the initiation of KS in HIV-1-negative individuals. Tat might play an indirect role in epidemic KS in HIV-infected patients.
Huang
Y Q
YQ
Department of Microbiology, New York University Medical Center, NY 10016.
Buchbinder
A
A
Li
J J
JJ
Nicolaides
A
A
Zhang
W G
WG
Friedman-Kien
A E
AE
D001483:Base Sequence; D003673:Defective Viruses / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015756:Genes, tat; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology