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Letter

Nature Genetics 36, 687–693 (1 July 2004) | doi:10.1038/ng1384

Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus|[ndash]|induced cellular reprogramming contributes to the lymphatic endothelial gene expression in Kaposi sarcoma

Hsei-Wei Wang , Matthew W B Trotter , Dimitrios Lagos , Dimitra Bourboulia , Stephen Henderson , Taija M|[auml]|kinen , Stephen Elliman , Adrienne M Flanagan , Kari Alitalo & Chris Boshoff

The biology of Kaposi sarcoma is poorly understood because the dominant cell type in Kaposi sarcoma lesions is not known. We show by gene expression microarrays that neoplastic cells of Kaposi sarcoma are closely related to lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) and that Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV) infects both LECs and blood vascular endothelial cells (BECs) in vitro.