CD68+/CD83+/CD1a- dendritic cell subsets from patients with multiple myeloma are not infected with human herpesvirus 8.

Recently, a subset of dendritic cells with the phenotype CD68+/CD83+/CD1a-, present in patients with multiple myeloma (MM), was reported to be infected with human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8). Therefore we wished to clarify whether HHV-8 infection might be related to the pathogenesis of MM. In an attempt to identify HHV-8 infected cells in patients with MM, long-term bone marrow cultures from 8 MM patients and dendritic cell cultures from 11 MM patients were established. In addition, fresh bone marrow aspirates from 10 MM and 10 patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) were included in the study. All samples were analysed by a sensitive semi-nested PCR assay and were found to be consistently PCR negative. Phenotyping of day 7 dendritic cell cultures demonstrated the presence of a sufficient number of CD68+/CD1a- and CD83+/CD1a- cells. However, to exclude the presence of infrequent HHV-8 infected cells, the CD68+/CD1a- subset from 3 dendritic cell cultures was sorted in numbers of 105 for each PCR test, and again a negative PCR result was observed. This study documents that the CD68+/CD83+/CD1a- dendritic cells in patients with MM are not generally infected with HHV-8 and, as a consequence, it is unlikely that HHV-8 plays a role in the pathogenesis of MM.