Immunoglobulin and T cell receptor beta chain gene rearrangements and Epstein-Barr viral DNA in tissues of Hodgkin's disease in Taiwan.

Nineteen patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD), representing 4 different subtypes, were examined for immunophenotype and immunogenotype. Quantitative immunophenotypic analysis of 13 cases revealed a predominance of Leu1 and Leu3 T cells in all subtypes, except in the case of HD lymphocytic-depression (HDLD). The positive rate of LeuM1 and Ki1 in Reed-Sternberg (RS) cells was 65% (11/17) and 73% (11/15), respectively. In DNA hybridization analysis, 5 of the 19 cases of HD were found to have gene rearrangements--immunoglobulin (Ig) gene rearrangements in 3 cases and T cell receptor beta chain (TCR beta) gene rearrangements in 2 cases. Epstein-Barr (EBV) DNA genomes were detected in 8 cases, including 2 of 5 cases which previously had been shown to contain clonal Ig and TCR beta gene rearrangements. By contrast, there were no detectable cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA sequences in 19 cases of HD or 30 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Although our findings differed somewhat from those obtained on Westerners, they suggest the presence of a monoclonal lymphoid population in HD patients and that the EBV is related to the etiology of HD.