BioProject

The pathogenesis of nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) and its relationship to other lymphomas are largely unknown. More...

The pathogenesis of nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) and its relationship to other lymphomas are largely unknown. This is partly due to the technical challenge of analyzing its rare neoplastic L&H cells, which are dispersed in an abundant non-neoplastic cellular microenvironment. We performed a genome-wide expression study of microdissected lymphocytic and histiocytic (L&H) lymphoma cells in comparison to normal and other malignant B cells, which indicates a relationship of L&H cells to and/or origin from germinal center B cells at transition to memory B cells. L&H cells show a surprisingly high similarity to the tumor cells of T cell-rich B cell lymphoma and classical Hodgkin lymphoma, a partial loss of their B cell phenotype and deregulation of many apoptosis-regulators and putative oncogenes. Importantly, L&H cells are characterized by constitutive NF-κB activity and aberrant ERK signaling. Thus, these findings shed new light on the nature of L&H cells, revealed several novel pathogenetic mechanisms in NLPHL, and may help in differential diagnosis and lead to novel therapeutic strategies. Overall design: Analysis of differential gene expression in primary human lymphoma cells of nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) in comparison with primary lymphoma cells of classical Hodgkin lymphoma cells and other B-non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) samples and subsets of non-neoplastic B lymphocytes isolated from blood or tonsils. 67 gene expression profiles were analysed. Less...