KSHV infection of endothelial precursor cells with lymphatic characteristics as a novel model for translational Kaposi's sarcoma studies.

ABSTRACT: Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) is the etiologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), a hyperplasia consisting of enlarged malformed vasculature and spindle-shaped cells, the main proliferative component of KS. While spindle cells express markers of lymphatic and blood endothelium, the origin of spindle cells is unknown. Endothelial precursor cells have been proposed as the source of spindle cells. We previously identified two types of circulating endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs), ones that expressed markers of blood endothelium and ones that expressed markers of lymphatic endothelium. Here we examined both blood and lymphatic ECFCs infected with KSHV. Lymphatic ECFCs are significantly more susceptible to KSHV infection than the blood ECFCs and maintain the viral episomes during pas

SUBMITTER: Tuohinto K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9894539 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature