Presence of Merkel cell polyomavirus in Japanese cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
Section snippets
Background
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive neuroendocrine carcinoma of the skin which occurs mainly in sun-exposed areas of the elderly, and often immunosuppressed individuals such as people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.1, 2, 3 The incidence of MCC is higher in Caucasians than other races.1, 4 The higher risk may relate to a deficiency of protective melanin in Caucasians.5 Ultraviolet (UV) radiation appears to contribute to the etiology of MCC.4, 5 In 2008, Feng et al.6
Objectives
The aims of this study were to investigate the existence of MCPyV in non-MCC skin cancers including cutaneous SCC and BCC of Japanese patients, and to provide information on the geographical distribution of this virus in skin cancers.
Patients
Archival paraffin-embedded tissues of cutaneous SCC (n = 30, denoted as cases S-1 to S-30) and BCC (n = 10) from Japanese patients were enrolled. The median ages of the SCC and BCC patients were 84 years (range 60–99) and 78 years (range 64–89), respectively. Of the 30 SCC patients, 13 (43%) were men, and 17 (57%) women. Of the 10 BCC patients, there were 4 men and 6 women. The patients resided in Kochi prefecture located on the island of Shikoku of Japan. All patients were not infected with HIV,
Detection of MCPyV DNA
PCR analysis was performed with the MCPyV-specific primers directed against LT3 and VP1.6, 16 DNAs from paraffin-embedded tissues of Japanese MCPyV-positive MCC and -negative epidermal cyst were employed as positive and negative controls, respectively, for all sets of the PCR primers. Our PCR showed that the primers yielded positive amplification with DNA from the MCC sample, while no signal was observed in the epidermal cyst sample (data not shown). In addition, water instead of DNA template
Discussion
In the present study, the presence of MCPyV was demonstrated in a subset of cutaneous SCCs of Japanese patients who had no history of immunosuppression. Initially, we detected MCPyV in 13% of the SCC tumors by PCR with the LT3 primers which are supposed to be the most useful primers for a reliable detection of MCPyV in paraffin-embedded tissues.7, 20 The detection rate is close to the previous results (13–25%) reported by other groups from the United States and Europe.9, 11, 16, 18 It has been
Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Dr. Chang and Dr. Moore for useful advice.
Funding: This work was supported by the Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and a grant from Osaka Cancer Research Foundation to M.D. Conflict of interest: None declared. Ethical approval: This study received the approval of the ethics committee of Kochi Medical School, Kochi University.
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