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Post-transplant Kaposi sarcoma originates from the seeding of donor-derived progenitors

Nature Medicine volume 9, pages 554–561 (2003)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 July 2003

Abstract

Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is a vascular tumor that can develop in recipients of solid tissue transplants as a result of either primary infection or reactivation of a gammaherpesvirus, the KS- associated herpesvirus, also known as human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8). We studied whether HHV-8 and the elusive KS progenitor cells could be transmitted from the donor through the grafts. We used a variety of molecular, cytogenetic, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence methods to show that the HHV-8–infected neoplastic cells in post-transplant KS from five of eight renal transplant patients harbored either genetic or antigenic markers of their matched donors. These data suggest the use of donor-derived HHV-8–specific T cells for the control of post-transplant KS.

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Figure 1: Micromanipulation of KS tumor cells and PCR detection of donor genetic markers in isolated tumor cells from the renal recipients.
Figure 2: Microsatellite analysis at the amelogenin and D8S1179 loci from the microdissected KS, unaffected epidermis and peripheral blood from patients 1–3, 7 and 8.
Figure 3: Detection of Y chromosome by fluorescence in situ hybridization in patient 3.
Figure 4: Detection of donor HLA class I antigen by immunohistochemistry and double immunofluorescence in patient 6.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Milan, Italy (M.L.). We thank G. Santagostino, R. Ricci, L. Bignardi, F. Cardarelli, A. Savazzi, G. Pizov and D. Rubinger for providing the KS biopsies and the clinical data from the renal transplant patients; G. Beduschi for contributing to the microsatellite analysis; and E. Cesarman for enlightening discussion.

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Author notes

  1. Patrizia Barozzi and Mario Luppi: P.B. and M.L. contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology and Hematology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Patrizia Barozzi, Mario Luppi, Valeria Rasini, Luisa Ravazzini & Giuseppe Torelli

  2. Department of Pathology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Fabio Facchetti, Elisa Rossi & Silvana Festa

  3. Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Hematology and Clinical Immunology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Cristina Mecucci & Barbara Crescenzi

  4. Department of Morphological Sciences and Forensic Medicine, Section of Forensic Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Milena Alù

  5. Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Ronit Sarid

  6. Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel

    Dana G. Wolf

  7. Department of Virology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

    Thomas F. Schulz

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  1. Patrizia Barozzi
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Correspondence to Mario Luppi.

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Barozzi, P., Luppi, M., Facchetti, F. et al. Post-transplant Kaposi sarcoma originates from the seeding of donor-derived progenitors. Nat Med 9, 554–561 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm862

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