Is the Hodgkin cell A T‐ or B‐lymphocyte? recent evidence from geno‐ and immunophenotypic analysis and in‐vitro cell lines

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The cellular derivation of Hodgkin (H) and Reed‐Sternberg (RS) cells remains a controversial issue. A large body of conflicting results in the literature led to a variety of discordant speculations. The application of immunophenotyping, molecular biology and tissue culture provided additional means for investigations on the nature of H‐RS cells. Using immunoenzymatic staining with monoclonal antibodies (McAbs) at the single cell level, H‐RS cells from many, albeit not all cases, were shown to be positive for T‐ and/or B‐cell markers; none of the cases were labelled by anti‐myeloid or anti‐monocyte/macrophage McAbs. A common feature of the otherwise heterogeneous immunoprofile is the expression of activation and proliferation antigens besides HLA‐DR class II antigen and the X‐hapten.Clonal rearrangements of T‐cell receptor or immunoglobulin chain genes were found in 22 per cent of cases. The low frequency of positive samples might be due to the commonly low number of H‐RS cells in the total population which can lay below the threshold of sensitivity for genotypic analysis.Several cell lines containing H‐RS‐like cells have been established. These cell lines have geno‐ and immunophenotypic characteristics of T‐ or B‐cells, but lack properties of myeloid cells or monocytes/macrophages.In the absence of evidence in support of an origin from monocytes/macrophages or other non‐lymphoid cells the here reviewed data, which are based on geno‐ and immunophenotypic analysis of fresh and cultured H‐RS cells, provide a lead to a lymphoid derivation of H‐RS cells.