Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin cells in lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease of nodular subtype contain J chain.

To throw light on the question of whether B-cell-derived forms of Hodgkin's disease exist, more than 100 cases of Hodgkin's disease (including all four major histologic categories) were investigated for the presence of J chain and were also immunostained for epithelial membrane antigen and the granulocyte-associated antigen X hapten. Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin cells (RS & H) expressed J chain in 22 cases, 8 of which also expressed epithelial membrane antigen (EMA). X hapten was found in 62 cases, but all of these were J chain negative. J chain-positive RS & H cells were restricted to cases of lymphocyte-predominant disease, while X hapten-positive tumor cells were found frequently in nodular sclerosis, mixed cellularity, and lymphocyte-depletion Hodgkin's disease, but only occasionally in cases of lymphocyte-predominant disease. These findings indicate that nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease differs from the other subtypes of Hodgkin's disease and that the neoplastic cells are of B-lymphoid origin.