Kaposi's sarcoma in Morocco: a pathological study with immunostaining for human herpesvirus-8 LNA-1.
OBJECTIVE
The Maghreb region is considered to be an endemic area for classical Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) but the few published reports have focused on clinical descriptions. We report here the clinical, virological and pathological features of 26 KS cases, including 17 classic forms, eight epidemic forms and one case of post-transplant KS.


METHODS
Evidence of human herpesvirus (HHV)-8 infection was detected by serology, immunohistochemistry and polymerase chain reaction.


RESULTS
Antibodies directed against HHV-8 latent nuclear antigen (LNA-1/ORF73) were present in sera from all 26 KS cases and the ORF26 HHV-8 gene fragment was amplified from the tumour DNA of all patients. KS lesions that met the classical criteria for KS (spindle cells, positive endothelial markers) and were immunostained with the anti-LNA-1 marker, demonstrated typical granular intranuclear labelling of the spindle cells in all but one case of KS, in which very few spindle cells were present. Furthermore, whereas LNA-1 staining was largely confined to spindle cells in the late nodular stage, it was also observed in endothelial cells forming the walls of slit-like vessels in early patch-stage lesions.


CONCLUSIONS
This study confirms that Morocco is an endemic area for classical KS, which remains the most frequent type of KS in this country, and emphasises the value of the LNA-1 marker for the early diagnosis of KS lesions.
Hbid
Oumkaltoum
O
Unité de Recherche et d'Expertise en Histotechnologie et Pathologie, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
Belloul
Lamia
L
Fajali
Noura
N
Ismaili
Nadia
N
Duprez
Renan
R
Tanguy
Myriam
M
Benomar
Hakima
H
Tahri
El Hassane
el H
Gessain
Antoine
A
Huerre
Michel
M
D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000378:metabolism; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009018:Morocco / Q000453:epidemiology; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins; C118485:latent nuclear antigen (LNA)