Absence of t(14;18) major and minor breakpoints and of Bcl-2 protein overproduction in Reed-Sternberg cells of Hodgkin's disease.

The t(14;18) translocation, found in most human follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs), juxtaposes the Bcl-2 oncogene at 18q21 with the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus at 14q32. As a result, the Bcl-2 protein is markedly overproduced. Most of the breakpoints on chromosome 18 cluster at one of two sites, the major breakpoint region (mbr) and the minor cluster region (mcr). Recently, others used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the t(14;18) mbr in 32% of specimens diagnosed as Hodgkin's disease (HD). In an attempt to confirm and extend those observations the authors used PCR to assay for both the mbr and mcr in HD specimens diagnosed at their institution and examined the specimens for Bcl-2 overproduction. The authors subjected the DNAs from 28 well-characterized HD tumors of 26 patients to PCR analyses using primers specific for the t(14;18) mbr and mcr breakpoints. Based on various PCR controls, the authors ascertained that 26 of the 28 specimens contained amplifiable template DNA. Southern blotting of the amplification products showed that none of the 26 HD DNAs had detectable t(14;18) mbr or mcr breakpoints. By admixing small amounts of t(14;18)-bearing NHL DNA with HD DNA samples, the authors directly demonstrated that the sensitivity of the PCR assays was adequate for the molecular detection of t(14;18)-bearing cells at a frequency comparable to that of Reed-Sternberg cells and their variants in HD. Immunohistochemical studies employing a highly specific anti-Bcl-2 antiserum under conditions optimized to detect t(14;18)-mediated overexpression of the Bcl-2 gene showed that the Reed-Sternberg cells and variants in all 19 HD tumors examined were negative for Bcl-2 immunostaining. In conclusion, the PCR and immunohistochemical data provided evidence that the t(14;18) translocation was not involved in the pathogenesis of the HD cases.