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MM Haber, J Liu, DM Knowles and G Inghirami
Department of Pathology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia
University, New York, NY 10032.
The nature of the Reed Sternberg (RS) cell, the malignant cell of Hodgkin's
disease (HD), remains unknown. Cytogenetic studies have yielded ambiguous
results regarding the chromosomal profile of this cell. In an attempt to
further clarify the ploidy status of the RS cell, we analyzed the DNA
content of CD30-positive RS cells and RS cell variants in HD lesions from
32 patients using an image analysis system. A diploid and/or near-diploid
(DNA index [DI], 1.0 +/- 0.2) and a tetraploid (2.0 +/- 0.2) RS cell
population were identified in 9 and in 11 of the 32 cases examined,
respectively. An aneuploid RS cell population was identified in 8 of the 32
cases examined. The remaining four cases contained two RS cell
subpopulations with different DNA content, each one representing more than
15% of the total RS cell population. There was no significant correlation
between the DNA content of the RS cells and the category of HD.
Furthermore, analysis of multiple biopsies of an individual patient taken
from different lymphoid organs at the same or different time periods showed
a constant DNA profile. Our data indicate that RS cells can express
variable DNA content and suggests that multiple subpopulations of RS cells
with different DNA content may simultaneously coexist within the same HD
lesion in some patients. In addition, the RS cell population within each
patient appears to express a specific DNA content profile, possibly
representing unique clones. These highly individualized profiles
potentially may be useful as markers to follow the clinical course of
patients with HD.
This article has been cited by other articles:
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| Copyright © 1992 by American Society of Hematology Online ISSN: 1528-0020 | |||||||||
