ROLE OF CYTOKINE UPREGULATION AND ENDOTHELIAL LINEAGE DIFFERENTIATION IN KSHV DRIVEN MESENCHYMAL STEM CELL KAPOSI?S SARCOMAGEN ESIS IN A PRO-ANGIOGENIC ENVIRONMENT

JULIÁN NAIPAUER; EZEQUIEL LACUNZA; OMAR COSO; MARTÍN C. ABBA; ENRIQUE A MESRI

Congreso; ANNUAL MEETING OF BIOSCIENCE SOCIETIES 2021; 2021

Cumulative evidence shows the importance of bone marrow-derived human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSC) in Kaposi?s sarcoma (KS) Herpesvirus (KSHV) induced tumorigenesis; including the increased expression of chemokines, cytokines, and endothelial markers after infection. These data reinforce the hypothesis that KS may derive from KSHV-infected MSCs migrating into an in.ammatory and angiogenic site enhancing the reprograming and transformation capacity of KSHV. Aim: uncover specific mechanisms and conditions involved in KSHV-induced transformation and reprograming of hMSCs. Methods: We carried out KSHV infection of hMSCs then subjected to MEM or KS-like pro-angiogenic culture conditions Three days after infection, we performed RNA-sequencing and pathway analysis of the Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) between these different environmental conditions. Results: We found that differentially regulated pathways related to Extracellular Matrix Organization, Cytokine Activity and Cell Cycle showed twice the amount of DEGs (LogFC>1.5, p