Study of association of Epstein Barr-virus with Hodgkin's disease

Epstein Barr-Virus (EBV) is a lymphotropic herpes virus, well recognised for its oncogenic properties. In recent years substantial evidence has accumulated supporting a role for EBV in the pathogenesis of Hodgkin's disease. The epidemiologic and histologic features of Hodgkin's disease (HD) have long indicated a possible infective cause. Our study involves the detection of the EBV encoded latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1) in 45 cases of Hodgkin's disease using immunohistochemical methods. In this study we detected LMP-1 positivity in the Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin's cells in 31% of cases of HD. In mixed cellularity the positivity was 21.7% while nodular sclerosis exhibited positivity of 50% of the cases. The lymphocyte depletion subtype showed 100% positivity. All cases of lymphocyte predominance and the single unclassified case were negative for LMP. The demonstration of LMP-1 in Hodgkin's disease has important implications since it is one of the latent gene products which produces B Lymphocyte transformation.