EBV infection patterns in Hodgkin's disease and normal lymphoid tissue: expression and cellular localization of EBV gene products

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Abstract
The present study was performed to clarify the reported inconsistencies regarding the frequency of the association of Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) and Hodgkin's disease (HD). Biopsies from 102 patients with HD were screened for the presence of EBV‐encoded small nuclear RNA (EBER) and latent membrane protein (LMP) by using a non‐isotopic in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistology (IH), respectively. The results were additionally compared with those obtained by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for EBV‐DNA detection. EBV was detected by EBER‐ISH in 67% of the HD cases and in 25% of the control group cases consisting of normal lymph nodes. The results of PCR performed on cases with amplifiable DNA were overall congruent with those obtained by EBER‐ISH. With respect to the cellular localization of EBV. four categories of HD could be established: (a) cases with EBV‐infected tumour cells (42/102). (b) cases with additional infection of bystander cells (4/102): (c) cases with EBV infection restricted to non‐malignant bystander cells (23/102); and (d) cases with neither EBV‐infected tumour cells nor bystander cells (33/102). LMP expression was detectable only in the neoplastic cell population of those cases with EBER‐positive tumour cells, suggesting a frequent involvement of EBV in the pathogenesis of HD.

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