Is the Hodgkin cell a T- or B-lymphocyte? Recent evidence from geno- and immunophenotypic analysis and in-vitro cell...

The cellular derivation of Hodgkin (H) and Reed-Sternberg (RS) cells remains a controversial issue. A large body of conflicting results in the literature led to a variety of discordant speculations. The application of immunophenotyping, molecular biology and tissue culture provided additional means for investigations on the nature of H-RS cells. Using immunoenzymatic staining with monoclonal antibodies (McAbs) at the single cell level, H-RS cells from many, albeit not all cases, were shown to be positive for T- and/or B-cell markers; none of the cases were labelled by anti-myeloid or anti-monocyte/macrophage McAbs. A common feature of the otherwise heterogeneous immunoprofile is the expression of activation and proliferation antigens besides HLA-DR class II antigen and the X-hapten. Clonal rearrangements of T-cell receptor or immunoglobulin chain genes were found in 22 per cent of cases. The low frequency of positive samples might be due to the commonly low number of H-RS cells in the total population which can lay below the threshold of sensitivity for genotypic analysis. Several cell lines containing H-RS-like cells have been established. These cell lines have geno- and immunophenotypic characteristics of T- or B-cells, but lack properties of myeloid cells or monocytes/macrophages. In the absence of evidence in support of an origin from monocytes/macrophages or other non-lymphoid cells the here reviewed data, which are based on geno- and immunophenotypic analysis of fresh and cultured H-RS cells, provide a lead to a lymphoid derivation of H-RS cells.