Detection of bcl-2 rearrangement in HIV-related follicular lymphoid hyperplasia

Rearrangement of the bcl-2 gene at the MBR (major breakpoint region) locus with the immunoglobulin heavy-chain joining region has been reported in a high proportion of follicular lymphomas. This rearrangement has also been reported in very few normal B cells of the blood, tonsils, follicular lymphoid hyperplasia (FLH) of the lymph nodes. HIV infection is often associated at the onset of the disease with FLH, but the presence of rearranged bcl-2 B cells in these lymph nodes has not been described. In using a standard PCR assay with Southern blot or a semi-nested PCR on 48 cases of FLH, we demonstrated that there were a few bcl-2 rearranged B cells in HIV FLH, at almost the same level as that in non-HIV-related FLH. The usual absence of bcl-2 rearrangement in the HIV-associated B-cell lymphomas suggests that the bcl-2 oncogene in the rearranged B cells of FLH is not cooperating with other oncogenes during HIV lymphomagenesis.