HUMAN-HERPESVIRUS-8 DNA-SEQUENCES IN BLISTERING SKIN FROM PATIENTS WITH PEMPHIGUS

Background: Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) has been detected in Kaposi sa rcoma (KS) and other lesions in patients both seropositive and seroneg ative for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Kaposi sarcoma has b een reported to develop in a disproportionate number of patients with pemphigus. Since HHV-8 is so strongly associated with KS, we wondered whether HHV-8 is present in pemphigus lesions from patients without KS or HIV infection. Pemphigus lesions and skin from healthy individuals were coded in a blinded fashion. Tissue-extracted DNA was tested usin g polymerase chain reaction, Southern blot hybridization, and automate d sequencing of the polymerase chain reaction products for the presenc e of HHV-8 DNA. Six patients had pemphigus foliaceus, 6 had pemphigus vulgaris, and 2 had KS; 10 healthy individuals were used as controls. All 24 patients were HIV seronegative. Observation: Lesional skin from 4 of the 6 patients with pemphigus vulgaris, all 6 of the patients wi th pemphigus foliaceus, and both positive controls (KS) tested positiv e for HHV-8 DNA. Furthermore, the HHV-8 DNA sequences for KS330(233) d iffered between all 6 DNA specimens from pemphigus foliaceus, while 3 of the 4 DNA specimens from pemphigus vulgaris were identical. However , HHV-8 DNA was absent in all normal human skin analyzed. Conclusions: This report expands the spectrum of lesions found to contain HHV-8 DN A sequences and suggests that HHV-8 might have trophism for pemphigus lesions.