A 36-year-old Korean woman had had a flesh-colored, indurated plaque with pruritus on the labium majora for five years. The lesion was not found in association with hyperpigmented or hypertrichotic patches. Results of biopsy specimens showed an excess of haphazardly oriented smooth-muscle bundles in the mid to lower dermis with an unremarkable overlying epidermis. Our diagnosis was an acquired smooth-muscle hamartoma in the vulva. Although there have been previously reported cases of acquired smooth-muscle hamartoma, this was the first reported case in the vulva. We also describe the characteristics differing between our case and the six previously reported ones.

Several infectious agents, including herpesvirus-like particles, had been suggested as possible candidates for the development of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), and a new herpesvirus, human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), was recently identified in the vast majority of KS lesions, irrespective of their association with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. However, the etiologic role of HHV-8 in KS remains controversial. We undertook this study to screen for and localize the presence of HHV-8 in KS in Korea. A total of 46 paraffin-embedded specimens were studied, including KS, hemangioproliferative disorders, and 10 non-KS lesions from HIV-positive patients. We performed nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and in situ PCR with HHV-8 specific primers. HHV-8 DNA sequences were detected in 8 of 11 KS specimens. All specimens of hemangioproliferative disorders, non-KS lesions from HIV-positive patients, and other skin samples were negative for HHV-8. When sequencing PCR products, the sequences were almost identical with the prototypic sequence for HHV-8. In PCR-positive tissues, in situ PCR staining of HHV-8 localized to nuclei of endothelial cells and perivascular spindle-shaped tumor cells. The results of this study suggest that HHV-8 is not widespread and has a certain causative role in the development of KS. Further studies, including serological and animal studies, will be helpful to appreciate an epidermiological link and pathogenetic mechanism between HHV-8 and KS.

We propose an improved solvent contact model to estimate the solvation free energies of amino acids from individual atomic contributions. The modification of the solvation model involves the optimization of three kinds of parameters in the solvation free energy function: atomic fragmental volume, maximum atomic occupancy, and atomic solvation parameters. All of these atomic parameters for 17 atom types are developed by the operation of a standard genetic algorithm in such a way to minimize the difference between experimental and calculated solvation free energies. The present solvation model is able to predict the experimental solvation free energies of amino acids with the squared correlation coefficients of 0.94 and 0.93 for the parameterization with Gaussian and screened Coulomb potential as the envelope functions, respectively. This result indicates that the improved solvent contact model with the newly developed atomic parameters would be a useful tool for the estimation of the molecular solvation free energy of a protein in aqueous solution.