January 2000, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages 48 - 52

Hypothesis and Debate

Interleukin-6 stimulates HHV-8 replication in bone marrow cultures and infected cell lines F Agbalika1, J-P Marolleau2 & J-C Brouet3,4 1Laboratory of Virology, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France     2Blood Bank, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France     3Department of Clinical Immunology, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France     4Laboratory of Immunopathology, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France     Correspondence to: J-C Brouet , Service d'Immuno-Hématologie, Hôpital Saint-Louis, 1, avenue Claude Vellefaux - 75475 Paris cédex 10 - France; Tel: +33 1 42 49 96 92, Fax: +33 1 42 49 40 40; E-mail: jc.brouet@chu-stlouis.fr

Keywords

HHV-8;   myeloma;   bone-marrow cultures

Abstract

Introduction: The significance of HHV-8 DNA detection in bone marrow stromal cells from patients with multiple myeloma is still controversial. Since IL-6 plays a key role in the pathogenesis of myeloma, we studied the effect of this lymphokine on HHV-8 DNA detection. Materials and methods: Amplification of HHV-8 DNA from long-term bone marrow cultures established from normal individuals in the presence or absence of 1 ng/ml IL-6 and from an HHV-8 infected ISI cell line. Results and conclusions: IL-6 increased HHV-8 replication in seven of ten bone marrow cultures as well as in the ISI cell line. Quantitative PCR showed a 3 - 100-fold increase in HHV-8 DNA copy number/µg DNA. These data suggest that when IL-6 is present in the micro-environment, HHV-8 replicates and may be amplified in the absence of systemic infection in patients without cellular immune deficiency. The Hematology Journal (2000) 1, 48 - 52

Received 17 September 1999; Accepted 21 October 1999

^© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2000