Kaposi's sarcoma and its relationship to cytomegalovirus (CMNV). III. CMV DNA and CMV early antigens in Kaposi's sarcoma.

DNA-DNA reassociation kinetics, anti-complement immunofluorescence (ACIF) and ACIF-blocking tests were used to search for cytomegalovirus (CMV) gene products in Kaposi's sarcoma (DS) biopsies and early cell cultures deriving from them. Three of eight tumor biopsies were positive for CMV DNA; two of them at 0.35 genome/cell and one at one copy 25% genome/cell. CMV-related antigens, mainly localized in the nucleus, were found in cryostat sections of seven of 31 tumor biopsies and four of 12 KS cell lines at early passage level. It appears that the antigen is present in a high number of tumor cells, like the Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen (EBNA) in EBV-transformed cells. Inevitably, the increasing data concerning the oncogenic potential of CMV lead on to consideration of the increasing evidence of its association with Kaposi's sarcoma, a multiple hemorrhagic sarcoma with an epidemiologic distribution in Africa similar to that of Burkitt's lymphoma.