IS KAPOSIS SARCOMA-ASSOCIATED HERPESVIRUS UBIQUITOUS IN UROGENITAL AND PROSTATE TISSUES

Controversy exists as to whether Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvir us (KSHV) is more widespread than originally reported. Recently, Monin i et al reported that KSHV is ubiquitous in urogenital and prostate ti ssues and sperm of healthy Italian adults using nested polymerase chai n reaction (PCR). We have examined for the presence of KSHV in 10 norm al prostates from Italian men and 10 from men from the United States, as well as 32 prostatic, 30 vulvar, 24 ovarian, 20 cervical, and 30 te sticular cancer specimens from patients from the United States. None o f the patients had a history of human immunodeficiency virus infection . The samples were tested by nested PCR. The sensitivity of this assay was determined by a dilution study performed by diluting KSHV DNA fro m the KS-1 cells (a primary effusion lymphoma cell line which is estim ated to have 16 copies of KSHV per cell) in DNA from a K562 myeloid ce ll line. The nested PCR that we used can detect 2.4 copies of KSHV seq uences on a background of K562 DNA. All the samples were negative for KSHV sequences. Therefore, we cannot confirm the finding that KSHV seq uences are ubiquitous in urogenital and prostate tissues. Furthermore, because our samples were from both the United States and Italy, the d iscrepancy between results is unlikely to be explained by either ethni c or environmental factors. False-positive results easily occur using nested primer PCR because of contamination. Our data argue that KSHV i s not widely disseminated in urogenital tissues from nonimmunosuppress ed individuals. (C) 1997 by The American Society of Hematology.