[Gene analysis of pulmonary lymphoproliferative disorders].

The authors performed gene analysis of pulmonary lymphoproliferative disorders. Cell suspensions were obtained from tissues of malignant lymphoma or pseudolymphoma in Cases 1 to 3. High-molecular-weight DNA was extracted from these specimens, digested with restriction endonucleases, size-fractionated by agarose-gel electrophoresis and transferred by the Southern procedure to nitrocellulose. Hybridization to nick-translated 32P DNA probes of the immunoglobulin JH, C kappa, C lambda, regions, and T cell receptor beta 1 region. In case 1 and 2, which were diagnosed as B cell lymphoma, cells from tumor had rearranged heavy chain genes, clearly establishing the clonal nature. In Case 3, which was diagnosed as pseudolymphoma, the tumor contained clonal immunoglobulin gene rearrangements as detected with both the JH heavy chain and C kappa light chain gene probes. It was concluded that gene analysis is an effective procedure for establishing a diagnosis of lymphoma in neoplastic disorders of uncertain cell type and for detecting clonal T cell or B cell populations with atypical lymphofollicular hyperplasia.