Samples representative of different stages in endothelial cell transformation

a.Relative tumorigenicity: + tumor-forming capability in xenograft models; ++ tumor in matrigel support in mice at 5×105 cell; +++ KS tumor in a person.
b.Wang L, Damania B (2008) Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus confers a survival advantage to endothelial cells. Cancer Res 68: 4640–4648.
c.An, F.Q., et al., Long-term-infected telomerase-immortalized endothelial cells: a model for Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus latency in vitro and in vivo. J Virol. 2006. 80(10): p. 4833–46.
d.Herndier BG, et al. (1994) Characterization of a human Kaposi sarcoma cell line that induces angiogenic tumors in animals. AIDS 8: 575–581.
e.Stage identifies biological distinct classes of transformation: uninfected endothelial cells (E), KSHV-infected endothelial cells (EK), endothelial cells that have the ability to form tumors in nude mice (ET, which includes the KSHV-positive TIVE- E1, L1 cell lines as well as KSHV-negative SLK cells), xenograft tumors of TIVE- E1 cells consisting of 5 independent samples (ETM), KS patient biopsies (KS).