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Previous Volume 340:1239-1247 April 22, 1999 Number 16 Next

	Full Text PDF Editorial by Manis, J. P Letters Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

ABSTRACT

Background Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma occasionally occur in the same patient. The identification of a common precursor of the two types of lymphoma would show definitively that Reed–Sternberg cells originate from B cells.

Methods We studied lymphomas from two patients, one with a composite lymphoma (classic Hodgkin's disease and a follicular lymphoma in the same lymph node) and the other with a T-cell–rich B-cell lymphoma that was followed by classic Hodgkin's disease. Single Reed–Sternberg cells and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cells from frozen sections were micromanipulated. The rearranged immunoglobulin variable-region genes (V genes) of the heavy and light chains were amplified by the polymerase chain reaction from genomic DNA and sequenced.

Results In both patients, the Reed–Sternberg cells were related clonally to the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma B cells. The V genes carried somatic mutations (a hallmark of germinal-center B cells and their descendants). In both patients, some somatic mutations were shared by the Reed–Sternberg and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cells, whereas other somatic mutations were found exclusively in one or the other cell type.

Conclusions In two patients with classic Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma, we identified a common B-cell precursor, probably a germinal-center B cell, for both lymphomas. This finding suggests that the two types of lymphoma underwent both shared and distinct transforming events and provides proof of the B-cell derivation of Reed–Sternberg cells in classic Hodgkin's disease.

Source Information

From the Department of Pathology, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (A.B., M.-L.H.); the Department of Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. (J.G.S.); the Department of Dermatology, Universitätsspital Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland (R.D., G.B.); and the Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany (K.R., R.K.).

Address reprint requests to Dr. Küppers at the University of Cologne, University Hospital, LFI E4 R706, Joseph-Stelzmannstr. 9, 50931 Cologne, Germany, or at rkuppers{at}mac.genetik.uni-koeln.de.

Full Text of this Article

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