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Abstract
Human Herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) has been consistently associated with Primary Effusion Lymphoma (PEL or body-cavity-based lymphoma) but not with other lymphomas. This paper reports on an AIDS patient without obvious malignant effusion in body cavities but with a cutaneous lymphoma where HHV-8 and Epstein-Barr virus (EB V) were detected by PCR and electron microscopy. Both viruses were also detected in all the cells of a malignant cell line (BBG1) established from the patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells. As in PEL and PEL-derived cell lines, both the tumor and the lines lacked B-antigen expression in immuno-logical studies but were of the same B origin as shown by clonal immunoglobulin gene rearrangements. In contrast to other co-infected cell lines, BBGl and subclones spontaneously expressed the HHV-8 lytic antigens p40, p27, p60 and the EBV transfonning latent antigen EBNA2. These data suggest that the clinical and biological features of HHV-8-and EBV-asso-ciated lymphomas could be wider than has been described to date in PEL particularly with the in vivo presence of circulating malignant dually-infected cells engaged in a spontaneous HBV-8lytic infection.