Frequent detection of Epstein-Barr virus DNA by the polymerase chain
reaction in lymph node biopsies from patients with Hodgkin's disease
without genomic evidence of B- or T-cell clonality
H Knecht, BF Odermatt, E Bachmann, S Teixeira, R Sahli, D Hayoz, P Heitz and F Bachmann
Department of Medicine, University Hospital CHUV Lausanne, Switzerland.
This study of 52 Swiss patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD), including 17
cases with a high content of Sternberg-Reed (SR) and Hodgkin (H) cells, was
performed to determine the percentage of cases harboring Epstein-Barr virus
(EBV) DNA and/or clonal rearrangements of Ig and T- cell antigen receptor
(TcR) genes in diagnostic lymph node biopsies. Special attention was drawn
to the heavily infiltrated cases to detect a possible relationship between
clonality and EBV DNA identification. EBV DNA was detected by the
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using three different sets of specific
primers. The viral origin of the amplification products was confirmed by
hybridization with a radiolabeled internal probe or demonstration of a
specific Sma I restriction site. Genomic rearrangement of Ig and TcR genes
was studied by Southern blot analysis. EBV DNA was identified by PCR in 38
of 48 cases (79%). Clonal rearrangements were identified in only 4 of 52
cases (Ig genes) and were independent of the degree of infiltration by SR
cells and the presence of EBV DNA. The absence of EBV DNA in three cases
with numerous SR cells (only one of them showed clonal rearrangement) and
the presence of only a few viral copies in four further cases with numerous
SR cells (semiquantitative analysis of viral DNA by PCR was performed in 26
EBV-positive cases) suggests that this virus is modulating rather than an
etiologic agent in a considerable proportion of HD cases.
Volume 78,
Issue 3,
pp. 760-767,
08/01/1991
Copyright © 1991 by The American Society of Hematology
