[Epstein-Barr virus infection and the expression of bcl-2 proto-oncogene in Hodgkin's disease].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relationship between Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and bcl-2 gene.

METHODS

Sixty-four paraffin-embeded cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD) were studied. Immunohistochemistry was performed by using monoclonal antibody to latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1) and bcl-2. In situ hybridization for EBV encoded small mRNA-EBER on 41 cases. Double staining combined in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry was performed for dual labelling of EBER and bcl-2 in seven cases.

RESULTS

The positive rates of LMP-1 and EBER were 39% and 44%. All cases which were EBER positive, also express LMP-1. The positive rate of bcl-2 protein was 23%. Only seven of these cases were also LMP-1 positive.

CONCLUSION

All the results suggest that the bcl-2 expression in the R-S cells in this series did not correlate with EBV-positivity.