Morphological and immunohistochemical studies of Hodgkin's disease in the spleen.

Hodgkin's disease in the spleen - with the exception of its B cell variant - behaves quite differently from non Hodgkin's lymphomas with respect to both its spread and microenvironment. Each type of HD appears to create its own microenvironment by the secretion of cytokines responsible for the characteristic cellular composition of the infiltrates and thereby alters the normal immunoarchitecture of the spleen profoundly. While some histological findings seem to imply the presence of a host response against HD especially in the nodular sclerosis subtype, morphological and immunohistochemical evidence in the spleen cannot conclusively substantiate this hypothesis.