Dendrocyte population in cutaneous and extracutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma

In order to investigate the hypothesis that the spindle cells of Kaposi's sarcoma originate from dendrocytes, we stained 22 cases of cutaneous and extracutaneous Kaposi's sarcoma for the presence of factor XIIIa. We selected eight lesions from the skin, five from the oral mucosa, four from gastrointestinal mucosa, three from lymph nodes, and one each from esophagus and conjunctiva for this study. The majority of cutaneous and lymph node Kaposi's sarcoma lesions had a considerable number of dendrocytes admixed with the spindle tumor cells. Of the five oral mucosal lesions only three showed a focal presence of dendrocytes. No dendrocytes were observed in the lesions biopsied from the gastrointestinal mucosa, esophagus, and conjunctiva. Our findings suggest that the proliferation of dendrocytes seen within the lesions of Kaposi's sarcoma in the skin and lymph nodes probably represents a nonspecific host response in organs where they are normally present, and it is unlikely that they constitute the neoplastic cells of Kaposi's sarcoma.