AEGiS-11IAC: Characterization of circulating Kaposi's sarcoma cells.

11th International AIDS Conference


Vancouver, British Columbia — July 7-12, 1996

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Characterization of circulating Kaposi's sarcoma cells.

Int Conf AIDS 1996 Jul 7-12; 11:7 (abstract no. We.A.162)
Sirianni MC, Vincenzi L, Topino S, Uccini S, Angeloni A, Aiuti F; Viale dell Univeresita, Rome, Italy. Fax: + 39 + 6 + 4463328.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the appearance of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-like spindle cells in peripheral blood from KS patients and to characterize them for hystochemical markers, cytokine profile and presence of HHV8/KSHV DNA sequences.

METHODS: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated on a Ficoll-Hypaque gradient and then cultured in the presence or not of T conditioned media (TCM) for a period of 4 weeks. Type 1 and type 2 cytokines were assessed by ELISA. HHV8/KSHV DNA sequences were searched by Southern blot hybridization of PCR and/or nested PCR of 233 base pairs fragments. Hystochemistry was performed by appropriate monoclonal antibodies on cytosmears of fixed cells.

RESULTS: Spindle-shaped cells appeared in PBMC cultures established from 16/19 patients (11 with mediterranean KS and 8 with AIDS-KS). These cells were co-expressing markers of endothelial origin (VE-cadherin and CD31) as well as of macrophage lineage (CD68/mannose receptor/CD14), as found for lesional KS-cells. Circulating KS cells appeared in the cultures, irrespective of the addition of TCM. There was a concomitant population of T cells. None of 36 control PBMC showed the appearance of spindleshaped cells with endothelial markers. Cultured cells were positive (13/16 cases studied) for HHV8/KSHV, whereas none of the controls was positive for this viral sequence. Supernatants from the cultures were containing gamma-Interferon. IL-4 was never found.

CONCLUSIONS: The appearance of circulating spindle cells with endothelial markers seems to define KS patients and to be associated with HHV8/KSHV. Their study may be useful for the characterization of KS patients and in monitoring therapies to KS.

Keywords: AEGIS, Sarcoma, Kaposi, Herpesvirus 8, Human, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Interleukin-4, Interferon Type II, Cells, Cultured, Mediterranean Sea, Human, ICA11KWDaegis,sarcoma,kaposi,herpesvirus8,human,acquiredimmunodeficiencysyndrome,polymerasechainreaction,interleukin-4,interferontypeii,cells,cultured,mediterraneansea,human,ica11

960707
WeA162

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