FEATURES OF A NEW CELL-LINE HARBORING HUM AN-HERPESVIRUS-8

Human Herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8), also called Kaposi's sarcoma-associated h erpes virus (KSHV) was recently discovered and is associated to Kaposi 's sarcoma, Castelman's disease. and body-cavity-based-lymphoma (BCBL) . BCBL represents a rare subset of B cell lymphomas and EBV is also fr equently (50 to 100 %) concomitantly detected in the tumor. The few fe ll lines harboring HHV-8 described to this day derive from BCBL tumora l cells. In these cell lines, HHV-8 Is mainly latent, and a lytic cycl e occurs only after chemical induction. In this study, the authors des cribe the features of a new cell line (BBG-1) harboring both HHV-8 and EBV. This cell line was established from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of an AIDS patient with a skin BCBL localization. Molecular and viral protein studies show a spontaneous HHV-8 lytic cycle in the cel l line. Thus. it seems that this type of cell line could allow for a b etter determination of the HHV-8 cell cycle and of its possible intera ction EBV.