Immunohistochemical study association between human herpesvirus 8 and multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell neoplasm characterized by a clonal proliferation of plasma cells that produce a monoclonal protein and involve the skeleton at multiple sites. Although human herpesvirus-8(HHV-8) has been implicated in pathogenesis of disease, but this role is not clear. The aim of this study was to show direct evidence of HHV-8 in bone marrow tissue of MM patients with use of immunohistochemical method. Standard immunohistochemstry was performed with HHV-8 marker on formalin fixed paraffin embedded bone marrow tissue in 30 MM cases and 30 subjects with normal bone marrow tissue. Slides were examined for nuclear immunoreactivity by two pathologists. The data were analyzed with 2 × 2 contingency tables and Fischer’s exact test, also differences with P-value under 0.05 (P ≤ 0.05) was considered statistically significant. Nuclear immunoreactivity for HHV-8 was detected in four patients (13.3%) with MM but was not detectable in any normal bone marrow cells. Fisher exact test showed no difference for HHV-8 immunoreactivity between two groups of case and control (P = 0.11). Our finding demonstrated that HHV-8 infection did not seem influence on pathogenesis of multiple myeloma.