ANALYSIS OF CLONAL ANTIGEN RECEPTOR GENE REARRANGEMENTS IN T-CELLS INVOLVED WITH KAPOSIS-SARCOMA

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a multifocal neoplasm of unknown origin. All forms of KS are composed of spindle-shaped cells with elongated nuclei and sheets of endothelial-like cells. The proliferation of spindle ce lls ir accompanied by the presence of an inflammatory infiltrate compo sed predominantly of T-cells It has been suggested that this infiltrat e might consist of a virally stimulated clonal population of T-lymphoc ytes which can produce growth factors initiating and substaining the p roliferation of spindle-shaped cells. In this study we analyzed for cl onal T-cell receptor gamma gene rearrangements the T-cell populations present in the cutaneous infiltrate of seven cases of classical Kaposi 's sarcoma using a polymerase chain reaction - based approach. Our dat a demonstrate the lack of a significant clonal population of T-cells i n the cutaneous infiltrates of KS. This finding is indicative of a rea ctive polyclonal response of T-cells to the spindle-shaped cells and s upports the contention that spindle-shaped cells are pathogenetically the central cell type in the disease. Our data also indicate that the anti-KS T-cell response being polyclonal in nature, does not result fr om clonal expansion of T-cells targeting tumor-associated antigenic pe ptides.