Journal of Virology, March 2001, p. 2435-2443, Vol. 75, No. 5
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.5.2435-2443.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Departments of Microbiology1 and Dermatology,4 New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016; Department of Pathology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York 100213; and Istituto di Microbiologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy2
Received 30 June 2000/Accepted 15 November 2000
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ABSTRACT |
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Previous studies have shown the presence of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV8) DNA in endothelial cells, in keratinocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis overlying plaque-stage nodular lesions of cutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), and in the epithelial cells of eccrine glands within KS lesions. We infected primary cell cultures of human keratinocytes with KSHV/HHV8. At 6 days post infection, transcription of viral genes was detected by reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR), and protein expression was documented by an immunofluorescence assay with an anti-LANA monoclonal antibody. To determine whether the viral lytic cycle was inducible by chemical treatment, KSHV/HHV8-infected keratinocytes were treated with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and RT-PCR was performed to confirm the transcription of lytic genes such as open reading frame 26, (which encodes a capsid protein). Finally, to assess infectious viral production, other primary human cells (human umbilical vein endothelial cells), were infected with concentrated supernatant of KSHV-infected, TPA-induced keratinocytes and the presence of viral transcripts was confirmed by RT-PCR. The uninfected keratinocytes senesced 3 to 5 weeks after mock infection, while the KSHV/HHV8-infected keratinocytes continued to proliferate and to date are still in culture. However, 8 weeks after infection, viral genomes were no longer detectable by nested PCR. Although the previously KSHV/HHV8-infected keratinocytes still expressed epithelial markers, they acquired new characteristics such as contact inhibition loss, telomerase activity, anchorage-independent growth, and changes in cytokine production. These results show that KSHV/HHV8, like other herpesviruses, can infect and replicate in epithelial cells in vitro and suggest that in vivo these cells may play a significant role in the establishment of KSHV/HHV8 infection and viral transmission.
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INTRODUCTION |
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Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a multicentric vascular neoplasm involving the skin and mucosal surfaces and in aggressive cases may involve visceral organs and lymph nodes. KS lesions contain distinctive proliferating spindle cells, activated endothelial cells, fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells, and infiltrating inflammatory cells (35, 39). Four different epidemiologic forms of Kaposi's sarcoma have been described, i.e., the classic, endemic, iatrogenic, and AIDS-related forms (22, 47).
The gamma-2 herpesvirus KSHV, also known as human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8), has been detected in >95% of KS patients with all clinical forms of KS (22, 34, 47). KSHV/HHV8 DNA sequences are also present in primary effusion lymphomas (PEL) (8), a subset of B-cell lymphomas occurring more frequently in AIDS patients and in a significant percentage of patients with multicentric Castelman's disease (51). By in situ hybridization (5) and immunohistochemistry (7, 15), the results of several studies have documented the presence of KSHV/HHV8 in spindle and endothelial cells in KS lesions. Reed et al. (38) by analysis of the expression of the latently expressed v-cyclin gene, noted the presence of KSHV/HHV8 DNA in scattered keratinocytes of the epidermis overlying cutaneous lesions. Positive signals were also detected in eccrine ductular epithelial cells and in spindle and endothelial cells lining the well-formed blood vessels within and surrounding KS lesions (38). Similar results were described by Foreman et al. (20), who detected KSHV/HHV8-positive signals by in situ PCR in basal keratinocytes in the area immediately above some of the later-stage (i.e., plaque or tumor) KS lesions. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the human herpesvirus most closely related to KSHV/HHV8, has been detected both serologically and histologically in epithelial cells (42, 49, 56). Epithelial cells of many tissues, including salivary glands and kidneys, support the replication of cytomegalovirus, another herpesvirus that can also infect human keratinocytes (58).
In this study we investigated whether KSHV/HHV8 was capable of infecting primary cultures of human keratinocytes in vitro and analyzed the biological consequences of this infection. We demonstrate that KSHV/HHV8 can establish a productive infection in primary human keratinocytes and that viral particles purified from the supernatant of infected keratinocytes can infect other primary cells, such as human endothelial cells. Infection by KSHV/HHV8 resulted in alterations of the keratinocytes, including the development of a spindle-shaped cell morphology similar to that observed in other immortalized cell lines of epithelial origin (24), and the ability to form colonies in soft agar. We also observed an induced telomerase activity, which is one of the characteristic factors of transformed human cells (27).
While rodent cells from several normal tissues can undergo spontaneous neoplastic transformation after variable periods in culture (46), human cells are rather resistant in this respect (14). To exclude the possibility of spontaneous immortalization, the infection experiment was repeated eight times, and four out of eight KSHV-infected cultures did not senesced and to date are still proliferating. Moreover, if such cells are the outcome of spontaneous transformation, they might also be expected to arise in uninfected cultures; however, these were never observed and the uninfected cultures did not proliferate longer than 3 to 5 weeks.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Cell cultures. Primary normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK) derived from newborn foreskin were obtained from Clonetics Corp. (San Diego, Calif.). Primary cultures of keratinocytes were established from histologically normal adult body skin. The homogeneity of the cultures was examined by immunohistochemistry staining using cytokeratin-specific antibodies for epithelial cells (CK AE1/AE3 and CAM 5.2). Four separate cultures of keratinocytes from Clonetics and four separate cultures derived from skin biopsy samples were used for the experiments.
Cells were grown in low-calcium, serum-free Keratinocyte-SFM medium (GIBCO BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.) supplemented with 100 U of penicillin per ml, 100 µg of streptomycin per ml, 2 mM glutamine, bovine pituitary extract (30 µg/ml), and recombinant epidermal growth factor (0.2 ng/ml) (GIBCO BRL). According to the manufacturer, this medium is selective for propagation of human keratinocytes. BC-3, a KSHV/HHV8-positive, EBV-negative primary effusion lymphoma (PEL)-derived cell line (2), was cultured in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 20% fetal bovine serum. Primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were isolated from umbilical cord veins by collagenase treatment as described previously (6). Cells were grown in gelatin-coated flasks containing M199 medium (Bio-Whittaker, Walkersville, Md.) supplemented with 10 ng of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (Perprotech Inc., Rockville, Md.) per ml, 10 ng of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) (R&D Systems Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.), per ml, and 10 U of heparin (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.) per ml.Viral infection.
Concentrated supernatant and cell-free
lysates from 4 × 108
12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced BC-3
cells were used as a source of KSHV/HHV8 for the infection of eight
NHEK cultures: four derived from skin biopsy samples and four from Clonetics. Concentrated supernatant and cell-free lysates from KSHV-infected, TPA-induced NHEK cultures were used as a source of
KSHV/HHV8 for the infection of two HUVEC cultures. Primary keratinocytes supplied by Clonetics are specified to be at passage 3. The cells were split once before the infection; therefore, all primary
cell cultures (Clonetics and skin biopsy sample) we used were infected
at passage 4. To release the virus in the medium, cells were treated
for 48 h with 20 ng of TPA (Sigma) per ml and centrifuged and
supernatant was collected. The cell pellet was lysed by three
freeze-thaw cycles, centrifuged to eliminate cell debris, pooled with
the supernatant, filtered through a 0.45-µm-pore-size filter, and
concentrated at 4°C overnight with 7% polyethylene glycol 6000. The
precipitate was collected by centrifugation at 15,000 × g for 2 h, resuspended in a small amount of
phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), and purified through a 25% sucrose
cushion (26,000 rpm for 3 h in a Beckman SW27 rotor). The pellet
was allowed to soak overnight at 4°C in 1 ml of PBS with 0.1% bovine
serum albumin, and the suspension was treated with DNase (1 U/ml;
Promega) and RNase (5 µg/ml; Quiagen), layered over a 5 to 45%
sucrose gradient in PBS, and centrifuged at 14,000 rpm for 1 h at
10°C in a Beckman SW41 rotor. The visible band at the center of the
gradient was collected, dialyzed against PBS, and then frozen at
70°C. Since no protocol for determining the PFU of KSHV currently
exists, viral DNA from purified particles was extracted with
phenol-chloroform and the optical density was measured by
spectrophotometry. From the optical density value, the DNA quantity was
assessed in micrograms per milliliter, it was converted to moles per
milliliter, and the number of molecules of viral genome was calculated
from the number of moles. We estimated a yield in the range of 1.5 × 1010 to 2 × 1010 KSHV/HHV8 genome
equivalents (DNA molecules) per ml of concentrated supernatant,
depending on the viral preparation. Human primary keratinocytes were
infected at passage 4 with 5 to 10 viral genome equivalents/cell.
PCR amplification.
To calculate the number of viral DNA
molecules in infected keratinocytes, semiquantitative PCR was performed
using the purified viral DNA from BC-3 cells as a standard. A fragment
of 233 bp was amplified with KS330233 BamHI
primers (10) and quantitated in serial dilutions from 100 to 10
8 amol/µl by electrophoresis on an ethidium
bromide agarose gel followed by Southern blot hybridization with an
internal probe. The range of DNA concentration measurable by regular
PCR was from 100 to 10
5 amol/µl.
RT-PCR.
Total RNA was extracted from 106
infected and uninfected keratinocytes with Tri-reagent (Molecular
Research Center, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio) as specified by the
manufacturer, and the extracted RNA was treated with RNase-free DNase
(Boeringher Mannheim, Indianapolis, Ind.). RNA was reverse transcribed
with the reverse transcription system (Promega, Madison, Wis.), and PCR
was performed. The cellular
-actin gene was amplified from each
sample as a control. The KSHV/HHV8 genes open reading frame 72 (ORF 72)
(encoding v-cyclin) (18), ORF K12 (encoding kaposin), and
ORF 26 (encoding the minor capsid protein) (10) were used
as reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) targets. The primers used for K12
detection were 5'-GGATAGAGGCTTAACGGTGTTTGTG-3' and (reverse)
5'-TGCAACTCGTGTCCTGAATGC-3', with the following amplification protocol: 94°C for 3 min, then 35 cycles of 94°C for
1 min, 62°C for 1 min, and 72°C for 1 min. RT-PCR was also performed targeting the VEGF (12) and bFGF transcripts in
infected and uninfected keratinocytes. The primers used to amplify bFGF were 5'-GGCCACTTCAAGGACCCCAAG-3' and reverse
5'-TCAGCTCTTAGCAGACA-3' with the following protocol: 94°C
for 3 min, then 35 cycles of 94°C for 1 min, 58°C for 1 min, and
72°C for 1 min.
Nested PCR.
The first PCR was performed with the following
set of outer primers to amplify a fragment of 327 bp in the KSHV/HHV8
major capsid protein (MCP) gene: 5'-AGGCAACGTCAGATGTGAC-3'
and 5'-GAAATTACCCACGAGATCGC-3'. The conditions used
for amplification were a 10-min denaturation at 94°C followed by 25 cycles of 94°C for 30 s, 58°C for 30 s, and 72°C for 1 min, with a single 5-min extension at 72°C. The inner primers used
for nested PCR were 5'-CATGGGAGTACATTGTCAGGACCTC-3' and
5'-GGAATTATCTCGCAGGTTGCC-3', and the condition for
amplification were a 10-min denaturation at 94°C followed by 35 cycles of 94°C for 30 s, 63°C for 30 s, and 72°C for
45 s, with a single 5-min extension at 72°C to amplify a 212-bp
fragment. The enzyme used for the reaction was Taq Gold
polymerase from Perkin-Elmer. Standard viral DNA was diluted 1/10 from
2 to 2 × 10
8 amol./µl.
IFA. An immunofluorescence assay (IFA) was performed using serum from a KS patient as a source of primary antibody or a monoclonal antibody (MAb) against ORF 73 (Advance Biotechnology, Inc., Columbia, Md.) for latent antigens and a monoclonal antibody against ORF 59 (generous gift from Bala Chandran) for lytic antigens.
The cells were detached with trypsin, counted, spotted on slides (105/slide), air dried, and fixed in acetone for 10 min. The slides were blocked with 20% normal goat serum in PBS for 30 min and then incubated overnight at 4°C with the primary antibody. Fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated goat anti-mouse and anti-human sera were used as secondary antibodies (ICN/Cappel, Aurora, Ohio). Staining controls included omission of the primary antibody and staining of noninfected keratinocytes. Cell nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (4',6-diamino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride; Boehringer Mannheim).Growth in soft agar. Uninfected and KSHV/HHV8-infected keratinocytes were trypsinized and resuspended in medium at concentrations of 103, 104, and 105 cells/ml. A 5-ml volume of 0.6% melted agar, made up by mixing 9 parts of Keratinocyte-SFM standard medium and 1 part of 6% agar, was poured into each 60-mm plate to form a bottom layer. Then 2 ml of 0.6% melted agar-medium was added to 1 ml of the cell suspension, and 1 ml of this mixture was poured over the bottom layer to form a top layer. Each serial dilution was plated in triplicate. Cells were fed every week with 3 ml of 0.4% agar-medium and routinely observed by microscopy for colony formation.
Telomerase activity. The enzymatic activity was measured by using a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (4) (TRAP assay kit; BD PharMingen, San Diego, Calif.).
Cytokine assay. Cytokines were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in a commercial laboratory (Cytokine Core Laboratory, Baltimore, Md.).
Immunohistochemistry staining. Cells were processed by a standard method of immunohistochemistry. Briefly, the cells were fixed in phosphate-buffered formalin and embedded in paraffin. Deparaffinized sections were treated with 0.1% pepsin (Sigma) for 7 min and were reacted overnight at 4°C with the MAbs (Boeringer-Mannheim and DAKO, Carpinteria, Calif.) listed in Table 1. The sections were rinsed in PBS, and the bound antibodies were localized by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase method (Elite kit; Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, Calif.) using diaminobenzidine as the chromogen. Sections stained with normal mouse serum were used as negative controls.
Cell proliferation assay. Cells were plated in a T-25 flask (5 × 105/flask), allowed to grow for 3 days, harvested with trypsin, diluted in trypan blue to assess viability, and counted in a Burker hemocytometer chamber.
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RESULTS |
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KSHV can infect primary human keratinocytes.
To determine
whether primary human keratinocytes were susceptible to KSHV/HHV8
infection, 106 cells were exposed to purified viral
particles. The presence of KSHV/HHV8-specific DNA was confirmed by
performing a PCR with the KS330233 primers 6 days
postinfection on 100 ng of total DNA purified from infected cells (Fig.
1A). The results showed that without TPA
treatment the number of viral DNA molecules/100 ng of template was 500 to 600, depending on the particular culture. The number of KSHV genomes
in the cultures was small, suggesting that only about 5 to 6% of the
cells in these culture were infected, assuming one copy per infected
cell. This estimate was calculated as described in Materials and
Methods.
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3 to 2 × 10
8 amol of viral DNA per
µl extracted from purified KSHV/HHV8 particles. This analysis was
used as a standard to quantitate the viral DNA concentration and to
measure the sensitivity of the method. The lower detection limit was
2 × 10
6 amol/µl or approximately 1.2 KSHV
equivalent molecules. Figure 2B shows the results of a nested
PCR-Southern blot analysis of DNA extracted from three separate
cultures of keratinocytes, 8 weeks postinfection. All nested PCRs that
we performed with the keratinocyte cultures 8 weeks postinfection were
negative. This means that the copy number of viral DNA relative to
total cellular genome was smaller then the detection limit. Nested PCR
is a very sensitive assay, and by this method we have been able to
detect 1.2 KSHV DNA molecules in our standard. Therefore, it is
unlikely that there are any viral genomes in the proliferating
keratinocytes 8 weeks postinfection.
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Expression of viral latent nuclear antigen.
To further
document the in vitro infection of primary keratinocytes with KSHV, the
expression of latent viral antigens was examined by immunofluorescence.
Serum from a KS patient (data not shown) or a MAb against ORF 73 was
used as the primary antibody, and in both cases a punctate nuclear
pattern was detected in 2 to 5% of cells in the infected culture (Fig.
3A and B). This result demonstrated the
expression of viral proteins in KSHV/HHV8-infected keratinocytes. The
IFA has been performed in all infected cultures 6 days and 4 weeks
postinfection, and similar results have been obtained.
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Induction of KSHV lytic replication and viral serial
transmission.
To determine whether KSHV/HHV8 could establish a
productive infection in keratinocytes, infected cells were treated with
TPA to induce lytic replication of KSHV/HHV8 and release viral
particles into the medium (41). After 48 h of TPA
treatment, induction of lytic gene transcription was detected by RT-PCR
analysis of ORF 26 (encoding capsid protein) (Fig.
4A). Lytic gene expression was also
confirmed by immunostaining of TPA-induced cells with a MAb against the
ORF 59 product, a DNA-replication protein. The percentage of induced
cells that expressed viral lytic antigens never exceeded 40% of the
positive infected cells (Fig. 3C and D).
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Effect of KSHV infection on the survival and growth properties of
keratinocytes.
Infected and uninfected cells were passaged at the
same rate. After seven passages (3 to 5 weeks, depending on the
particular culture) the uninfected cell cultures (Fig.
5A) stopped proliferating and trypsinized
cells did not adhere to fibronectin-coated flasks as well as the
majority of the cells in the infected cultures. However, a new
population of cells in the same infected flask began to proliferate
after developing adherent foci (Fig. 5B). In these new cultures derived
from adherent foci, KSHV/HHV8 was still detectable by PCR 4 weeks
postinfection, and the cells showed a spindle-shaped morphology, loss
of contact inhibition (Fig. 5C), and independence of growth factors
specific for keratinocytes (epidermal growth factor and bovine
pituitary extract). These cells were also capable of forming colonies
in soft agar (Fig. 5D). Of 104 cells plated, 168 colonies
(range, 105 to 256) were obtained; thus, only~2% of the cells plated
resulted in colony formation (Fig. 5E).
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Immunohistochemistry.
Since the long-term-proliferating
keratinocytes established from cultures previously infected by
KSHV/HHV8 displayed changes in their morphology, it was important to
exclude the possibility that these cells represented contamination with
other cell types in the original cultures. By immunohistochemical
staining we investigated whether the long-term-proliferating
keratinocytes established from cultures previously infected by
KSHV/HHV8 still retained the markers specific for keratinocytes or
expressed other cellular surface molecules. Panels of antibodies
specific for keratinocytes (AE1-AE3 mixture, CAM 5.2, MNF116
[37]), endothelial cells (CD31, CD34), dendritic cells
(CD1A), melanocytes (S100-protein, HMB 45), and fibroblasts (type 4 collagen) were tested. Immunohistochemical detection showed positive
staining for the AE1-AE3 mixture and for cytokeratin 5, 6, 8, 17, and
19 (MNF116 antibody), while molecular markers for other cell types were
negative, except for vimentin, which is expressed by most spindle cells
(23) (Table 1).
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Human cytokine production.
Recently it has been demonstrated
that inflammatory cytokines can modulate KSHV/HHV8 replication
(9). Since there were differences in the proliferative
capacity of uninfected keratinocytes and previously KSHV/HHV8-infected
long-term-proliferating keratinocytes, possibly due to higher
production or responsiveness to endogenous cytokines, we analyzed the
cytokine expression pattern of both uninfected and previously
KSHV/HHV8-infected keratinocytes 3 months postinfection. The latter
cells expressed higher levels of IL-6 and lower levels of IL-8 than did
the uninfected controls (Table 2). The
levels of other cytokines (macrophage inflammatory protein 1
[MIP-1
], MIP-1
, gamma interferon (IFN-
), tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF-
], soluble TNF-R1, soluble TNF-R2, and
RANTES) were not significantly different in uninfected and
previously KSHV/HHV8-infected cells.
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VEGF and bFGF gene transcription.
VEGF and bFGF play a key
role in the growth of KS lesions (13, 32, 44), and normal
human keratinocytes are a prominent source of VEGF (55).
To evaluate the levels of VEGF and bFGF transcripts in the previously
KSHV/HHV8-infected long-term-proliferating keratinocytes, we performed
RT-PCR assays after 3 months of infection. Figures
7A (bFGF) and B (VEGF) show no
significant differences in the transcription levels of the previously
KSHV/HHV8-infected, long-term-proliferating keratinocytes and of normal
primary keratinocytes.
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DISCUSSION |
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This report describes the in vitro infection of primary human keratinocytes with KSHV/HHV8. Other authors have shown, by either in situ hybridization or in situ PCR, the presence of KSHV/HHV8 DNA and RNA in scattered keratinocytes in the epidermis overlying KS lesions (20, 38). These observations suggest that different human cells, other then endothelial cells and lymphocytes, are permissive for KSHV/HHV8 infection and replication. Moreover, detection of infectious viral particles in the saliva of KSHV/HHV8-infected patients suggests that the epithelial cells in the oral mucosa or in salivary glands are a source of the virus (36, 54). Other studies have demonstrated that the human embryonal-kidney epithelial cell line 293 and the owl monkey kidney OMK 637 cell line (21, 40) can support KSHV/HHV8 infection in vitro. Since these cell lines are of epithelial origin but are immortalized, we decided to assay primary human epithelial cells, in particular keratinocytes, for their susceptibility to viral infection and to study the biological consequence of the infection. In the work presented here we demonstrate that KSHV/HHV8 can indeed infect and replicate in primary human keratinocytes. On treatment with TPA, PEL-derived cell lines and in vitro-infected endothelial cells undergo the complete program of KSHV/HHV8 gene expression, resulting in viral replication and release of mature virions (19, 29, 35, 50). In primary keratinocytes, KSHV/HHV8 conforms to this pattern as well. We show that in latently KSHV/HHV8-infected keratinocytes, TPA treatment can induce the viral lytic cycle and lead to the production of mature virions that can be serially transmitted to other primary human cells such as HUVECs. As previously reported for endothelial cells (19), the cells surviving the initial viral infection continued to proliferate. We have continued to propagate these cells, and they are still in culture, although the rate of proliferation 9 months postinfection is lower then it was 3 months postinfection. On the other hand, uninfected controls senesced after seven passages in culture (3 to 5 weeks, depending on the particular culture). The long-term-proliferating keratinocytes displayed several changes: modification of cell morphology with acquisition of a spindle shape, described also in several cell lines of epithelial origin (24), loss of contact inhibition, and acquisition of anchorage-independent growth. The presence of telomerase activity in keratinocytes 8 weeks after infection with KSHV/HHV8 provides additional evidence of a role for this virus in the long-term survival of keratinocytes in culture (27). These results are consistent with those obtained with KSHV/HHV8-infected primary endothelial cells (19). Similar observations were made for KSHV-infected dermal microvascular endothelial cells (35), although these cells were already immortalized by infection with a recombinant retrovirus and telomerase activity could not be tested. Examination of the phenotype of KSHV/HHV8-infected cells by immunohistochemical analyses excluded infection and expansion of other contaminating cell types, since all long-term-proliferating keratinocytes were cytokeratin positive, especially with MAb MNF116, which stains mainly basal keratinocytes (37). All other cellular markers were negative except vimentin. Phenotypic changes, such as vimentin expression, resemble an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition that can occur when epithelial cells undergo malignant transformation such as in human squamous carcinoma (1, 23, 31, 53).
Cytokines produced by epidermal keratinocytes may play a significant role as regulators in inflammation and host immune response. Long-term-proliferating keratinocytes exhibited a different pattern of human cytokine production from normal primary human keratinocytes. Interestingly, expression of human interleukin-6 IL-6, a multifunctional cytokine that plays a role in neovascularization and wound healing and has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of KS (30, 33), was highly upregulated. By contrast, expression of IL-8, a proinflammatory cytokine that plays a role in the host defense mechanism through its effects on neutrophil activation (3), was downregulated. These results suggest that viral factors may play a primary role in modification of the biologic behavior of different cell types. Since bFGF and VEGF are potent angiogenic growth factors that are highly expressed in KS spindle cells and in primary KS lesions (16, 17, 43, 57), we investigated the transcript levels of bFGF and VEGF genes. No significant differences were found between infected and uninfected cells, suggesting that neither bFGF nor VEGF is particularly involved at this stage in the proliferating mechanisms of the previously KSHV/HHV8-infected keratinocytes. We hypothesize that the ability of KSHV/HHV8 to replicate in primary keratinocytes, in particular in mucosal sites, is probably one of the first steps in clinical infection. From there, the virus may reach the endothelial cells locally or via circulating hematopoietic cells and contribute to the formation of the vascular lesions typical of KS. This hypothesis is in line with the infection modalities of the closest related known human herpesvirus, EBV, which is associated with lymphoid and epithelial lesions (25, 26, 28). EBV infects epithelial cells in vivo (49, 52, 56), transforms epithelial cells, and inhibits cell differentiation (48). Several studies have also demonstrated that nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines and keratinocyte cell lines can be infected with EBV by cell-to-cell contact (11). Recently it has been shown that mucosal shedding of KSHV/HHV8 occurred in men who were infected with this virus but did not have KS. This suggests that oral-oral contact might play a significant role in transmission (36).
In conclusion, we have shown that KSHV/HHV8, like other herpesviruses, can productively infect epithelial cells. These results indicate that keratinocytes can support KSHV/HHV8 infection and replication and are consistent with the notion that epithelial cells, particularly those in mucosal sites, are likely to be a primary site of infection from which the virus may reach the endothelial cells or can be amplified in the locally infiltrating B lymphocytes and then spread to other tissues.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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We thank Claudio Basilico and Jan T. Vilcek for helpful discussions, Michael Bouchard for critical reading of the manuscript, and Amy Chadburn and Elizabeth M. Hyjek for assistance with the immunohistochemistry. We also thank Iraida Sharra-Pagano and Ron Liebman for providing keratinocytes and endothelial cells, respectively, and Lily Ying for technical help.
Francesca Curreli was supported by a fellowship from FIRC (Federazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro). This work was supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation and by the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR).
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, NYU School of Medicine, 550 First Ave., New York, NY 10016. Phone: (212) 263-5313. Fax: (212) 263-7933. E-mail: ornella.flore{at}med.nyu.edu.
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