1993 Volume 33 Issue 1 Pages 129-135
A 16-year-old boy had an anterior mediastinal tumor, which was resected in our hospital. The weight of the tumor was 205g, and it was diagnosed as Hodgkin's disease of the nodular sclerosis type. We performed gene analysis of the tumor in regard to the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene, light chain κ gene, λ gene, T-cell receptor βgene, and bcl-2 gene. We did not find any rearrangement bands for any of those genes. These results indicate that the origin of Hodgkin's disease is neither T-cell nor B-cell. The results of immunohistochemical staining were as follows. S-100 protein was positive, CD1a was positive, Ki-1 (CD 30) was positive, L26 (pan B-cell) was negative, UCHL-1 (pan T-cell) was negative, CD15 was negative, and CD68 was negative, for Hodgkin cells or Reed-Sternberg cells. These results, similar to those for the gene analysis, showed that the origin of Hodgkin's disease is neither T-cell nor B-cell. We suggest that the positive staining for S-100 protein and CD1a indicate that the Reed-Sternberg cells or Hodgkin cells are derived from interdigitating cells (T-zone histiocytes).
