Expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and EBV latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) in Reed-Sternberg cells of Hodgkin's disease.

Tissue sections embedded in paraffin and fixed in formalin from 65 patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) were examined for the presence of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) using avidin-biotin immunoperoxidase complex technique. The staining results in Reed-Sternberg (R-S) cells and their variants were evaluated independently. HSP70 expression was found in R-S cells in 55 cases (85%) of HD examined and the frequency of HSP70 positive cases was significantly higher than that of HSP70 negative cases (P < 0.01). This protein was present in pathogenic cells in 9/12 cases (75%) of lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin's disease (LPHD), 21/27 cases (78%) of mixed cellularity Hodgkin's disease (MCHD), 10/10 cases (100%) of lymphocyte depleted Hodgkin's disease (LDHD) and 15/16 cases (94%) of nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease (NSHD). The association between HSP70 expression and HD thus appeared to be more frequent in patients wish LDHD and NSHD subtypes, although examples of HSP70-positive tumors were found in all histological subtypes. Studies of non-neoplastic lymphoid tissues demonstrated that centroblasts (large lymphocytes in germinal centers) were constantly positive; occasional histiocytes revealed variable reactivity for.