ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Hodgkin’s lymphoma associated T-cells exhibit a transcription factor profile consistent with distinct lymphoid compartments

Çidem Atayar¹, Anke van den Berg¹, Tjasso Blokzijl¹, Marcel Boot¹, Randy D Gascoyne², Lydia Visser¹ and Sibrand Poppema¹

¹ Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of Groningen and University Medical Centre Groningen, The Netherlands
² Department of Pathology, University of British Columbia and British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Correspondence to:
Professor Sibrand Poppema, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University Medical Centre Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, PO Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen The Netherlands; s.poppema{at}rvb.umcg.nl

Background: Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL) is characterised by an ineffective immune response that is predominantly mediated by CD4⁺ T-cells.

Aims: To analyse the expression of the key regulatory T-cell transcription factors (TFs) in the T-cells of HL involved tissues in order to assess the nature of the T_H immune response in HL.

Methods and results: By immunohistochemistry, GATA3 was strongly and T-bet exclusively expressed in a subset of interfollicular lymphocytes in the reactive lymphoid tissues. In classical HL (CHL), which is generally located in the interfollicular zones, a predominance of T-bet⁺ T-cells and lesser amounts of GATA3⁺ and c-Maf⁺ T-cells was found, concordant with the pattern of the normal interfollicular compartment. In reactive lymphoid tissues, c-Maf was observed mostly in T-lymphocytes within the germinal centres (GCs). Nodular lymphocyte predominance type of Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NLPHL) and progressively transformed germinal centres cases, showed a majority of c-Maf⁺ T-cells, consistent with the pattern in normal GCs. NLPHL cases uniformly showed c-Maf⁺/CD57⁺ T-cell rosettes around the neoplastic cells; these rosettes were absent in "paragranuloma-type" T-cell/histiocyte rich B-cell lymphoma.

Conclusions: T-cell TF expression profiles of the reactive T-cells in both subtypes of HL are in accordance with the expression profile observed in the distinct lymphoid compartments.

Abbreviations: CHL, classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma; GC, germinal centre; HL, Hodgkin’s lymphoma; HRBCL, histiocyte rich B-cell lymphoma; HRS, Hodgkin and Reed–Sternberg; L&H, lymphocytic and/or histiocytic; NLPHL, nodular lymphocyte predominance type of Hodgkin’s lymphoma; PTGC, progressively transformed germinal centre; TF, transcription factor; T_H, T-helper

Keywords: Hodgkin’s lymphoma; nodular lymphocyte predominance type of Hodgkin’s lymphoma; progressive transformation of germinal centres; T-cell transcription factors; T-helper cells

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