Heterogeneity of immunoglobulin gene rearrangements in B‐cell lymphomas

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Abstract
We have examined 69 B‐cell non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) for rearrangements of the immunoglobulin (Ig) or T‐cell antigen receptor (TCR) genes. The lymphomas were assigned to the categories of the Kiel classification and their B‐cell nature was confirmed by immunostaining. Only 2 cases (with CLL) displayed clonal Tβ‐chain TCR gene rearrangements together with rearranged heavy‐ and light‐chain Ig genes. The remaining 67 lymphomas had a germline β‐chain TCR‐gene configuration. Three different patterns of Ig gene rearrangements were identified; (A) presence of both heavy‐ and light‐chain rearrangements (H+L+); (B) rearrangement of heavy‐chain gene only (H+L−); (C) heavy‐ and light‐chain genes in germline configuration (H−L−). All the 45 low‐grade NHLs and the 4 immunoblastic lymphomas exhibited pattern A and all had their kappa gene rearranged or deleted. Of 24 low‐grade lymphomas tested, 13 (54%) had an additional rearrangement of the lambda light‐chain gene. In contrast, the 19 high‐grade centroblastic (cb) B‐NHLs had distinct patterns of Ig‐gene rearrangement: 12 with pattern A, 4 with B and 2 with C. In this group only 2 of 17 (12%) cases analyzed had evidence of lambda light‐chain rearrangement whereas 12 of 18 (67%) had a kappa gene rearrangement or deletion. In one case expressing sIgM/lambda and with heavy chain Igrearrangement, no DNA was available for Ig light‐chain analysis.