Immunogenotyping in Hodgkin's disease.

This review presents and discusses the immunogenotypic findings in 112 cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD) and eight Hodgkin's cell lines. Clonal rearrangements of the T cell receptor gamma and beta chain, as well as immunoglobulin heavy and light chain genes, are detected in the majority of nodular sclerosis and lymphocytic depletion subtypes. Together with the recent immunophenotypic data, these findings are in favour of the view that HD is a disease of activated lymphoid cells. Further investigations will be necessary to characterize the morphology and immunophenotype of the clonally rearranged cell population which seems not to be confined to the Sternberg-Reed and Hodgkin cell in every case. Prospective clinical studies including the genotype of HD cases have to be done in order to address the question of whether or not distinctive immunogenotypic profiles correlate with the clinical course of this lymphoproliferative disorder.