Detection of human herpesvirus 8 DNA in pemphigus and chronic blistering skin diseases

Increased incidences of Kaposi's sarcoma and lymphoid malignancies have bee n observed in patients with pemphigus, and the human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is very strongly associated with these tumors. Because the virus may be one of the triggering factors of pemphigus, we undertook this study to screen for the presence of HHV-8 in chronic blistering skin diseases including pem phigus, A total of 45 paraffin-embedded specimens were studied using nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primers to amplify a 160-base pair HH V-8 fragment, HHV-8 DNA could be detected in 7 of 9 patients with pemphigus vulagris, and 1 of 2 with pemphigus foliaceus, All specimens of other blis tering skin diseases were negative for HHV-8, On sequencing PCR products, t he sequences were almost identical with the prototypic sequence for HHV-8, and a few base-pair substitutions at 1086C-->T and 1139A-->C were detected. The results of our study suggests that HHV-8 might have trophism for pemph igus lesions. Further studies including comparison of HHV-8 DNA load in bot h lesional and normal skin in the same patient, serological and animal stud ies would be helpful to study the relationship between HHV-8 and pemphigus.