Expression of Human Herpesvirus 8 in Primary Pulmonary Hypertension

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is believed to cause Kaposi's sarcoma, and the vascular lesions of Kaposi's sarcoma resemble the plexiform lesions of primary pulmonary hypertension. In this study, molecular evidence of HHV-8 was found in the lung tissue of 10 of 16 patients with primary pulmonary hypertension, but in none of 14 patients with secondary pulmonary hypertension. This virus may have a role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension. Severe pulmonary hypertension constitutes a group of pulmonary vascular abnormalities characterized clinically by marked elevation of the pulmonary-artery pressure and the development of right ventricular failure. Primary (idiopathic) pulmonary hypertension occurs sporadically and in a familial form, in which germ-line mutations of bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 (BMPR2) have been identified. 1 Although the clinical spectrum of severe pulmonary hypertension is large and includes primary forms and secondary forms (e.g., in association with congenital cardiac abnormalities, pulmonary embolism, portal hypertension, various collagen vascular disorders, sarcoidosis, and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 [HIV-1] infection), the histologic features, characterized by complex, lumen-occluding vascular . . .