Detection of human herpesvirus 8 DNA in pemphigus and chronic blistering skin diseases.
Increased incidences of Kaposi's sarcoma and lymphoid malignancies have been observed in patients with pemphigus, and the human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is very strongly associated with these tumors. Because the virus may be one of the triggering factors of pemphigus, we undertook this study to screen for the presence of HHV-8 in chronic blistering skin diseases including pemphigus. A total of 45 paraffin-embedded specimens were studied using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primers to amplify a 160-base pair HHV-8 fragment. HHV-8 DNA could be detected in 7 of 9 patients with pemphigus vulagris, and 1 of 2 with pemphigus foliaceus. All specimens of other blistering skin diseases were negative for HHV-8. On sequencing PCR products, the sequences were almost identical with the prototypic sequence for HHV-8, and a few base- pair substitutions at 1086C-T and 1139A-C were detected. The results of our study suggests that HHV-8 might have trophism for pemphigus lesions. Further studies including comparison of HHV-8 DNA load in both lesional and normal skin in the same patient, serological and animal studies would be helpful to study the relationship between HHV-8 and pemphigus.
Jang
H S
HS
Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea. hsjang@hyowon.cc.pusan.ac.kr
Oh
C K
CK
Lim
J Y
JY
Jun
E S
ES
Kim
Y S
YS
Kwon
K S
KS
D000328:Adult; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D010392:Pemphigus / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012872:Skin Diseases, Vesiculobullous / Q000821:virology*; D017193:Skin Diseases, Viral / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D016707:Tissue Fixation
D004279:DNA, Viral