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Alexander Kreuter, MD; Sebastian Bischoff, MD; Marina Skrygan, PhD; Ulrike Wieland, MD; Norbert H. Brockmeyer, MD; Markus Stücker, MD; Peter Altmeyer, MD; Thilo Gambichler, MD

Arch Dermatol. 2008;144(8):1011-1016.

Objective  To investigate the presence of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) in lesional skin of German patients with large-plaque parapsoriasis (LPP) or mycosis fungoides (MF). The pathogenetic relevance of HHV-8 in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma is controversial. Recently, a highly significant association of HHV-8 in LPP was found, which suggests a role in the pathogenesis of this disease.

Design  Retrospective study of the presence of HHV-8 in German patients with lymphoproliferative diseases.

Setting  Dermatologic clinic at a university hospital of the Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.

Patients  Fifty-three patients treated for lymphoproliferative skin diseases were included in the study, including 14 patients with LPP, 31 with different stages of MF, and 8 with lymphomatoid papulosis (LyP). Twenty-three patients with Kaposi sarcoma (KS) made up the positive control group, and 10 patients with atopic dermatitis served as negative controls.

Main Outcome Measures  The presence of HHV-8 was analyzed from paraffin-embedded lesional tissue samples using a nested polymerase chain reaction for the open reading frame (ORF) 26 and with immunohistochemical staining for the latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA) encoded by ORF 73.

Results  A high association of HHV-8 infection in both lymphoproliferative skin diseases was observed: 87% of LPP and 70% of MF tissue samples tested positive for HHV-8 DNA from ORF 26. However, HHV-8 was not detectable in LPP and MF by using the immunohistochemical marker LANA.

Conclusions  A virus unambiguously associated with KS, HHV-8 was frequently detected at low amounts in LPP and MF specimens. However, based on the methods of HHV-8 detection used in this study, no conclusion can be drawn on the etiologic and pathogenetic role of HHV-8 in these diseases.

Author Affiliations: Department of Dermatology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum (Drs Kreuter, Bischoff, Skrygan, Brockmeyer, Stücker, Altmeyer, and Gambichler), and the Institute of Virology, University of Cologne, Cologne (Dr Wieland), Germany.

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