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From the Department of Internal Medicine I,*
University
of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; the Center for Human Genetics and Genetic
Counseling,
University of Bremen, Bremen,
Germany; and the Institute for Pathology,
University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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B through the LMP-1-mediated induction of A20
expression.8
LMP-1 itself is known to exhibit an oncogenic
potential in B cells, because LMP-1-transgenic mice develop B-cell
lymphomas.9
H-RS cells, which represent the tumor cells in
classical Hodgkins disease, are of clonal germinal center B-cell
origin.10
It was speculated that H-RS cells as a rule do
not express a B-cell receptor with high affinity to the respective
antigen and that, under physiological conditions, H-RS cells
would be committed to apoptosis within the germinal
center.11
Thus, EBV infection indeed might be a crucial
early step in the rescue of these cells from apoptosis and in the
development of the malignant phenotype. However, because EBV-negative HD cases amount to 50% of HD cases in the Western world, the occurrence of these cases must be further elucidated. In this context, three possible explanations must be considered. First, one can speculate that EBV in these cases has never infected the H-RS cells, which accordingly must have been transformed by another mechanism. Second, EBV may have infected the H-RS precursor cells but might have been lost at later stages of lymphoma development when the H-RS cells acquired additional transforming events. If the EBV genome is frequently lost from H-RS cells during subclinical stages of the disease, the initial loss of EBV would never be perceptible during clinical manifestation of HD and, thus, could not be further investigated. Third, EBV might have infected the H-RS cells persistently, but might escape detection by standard screening methods such as immunohistochemistry or oligonucleotide ISH due to deletions in the viral genome or absence of latent antigen expression. In this scenario, fragments of the viral genome may be retained in the H-RS cells, because this retention has been demonstrated for rare cases of sporadic Burkitts lymphoma classified as EBV-negative, based on missing Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1) expression.12
To analyze whether such truncated EBV fragments can be detected in H-RS cells classified as EBV-negative due to the absence of the LMP-1-protein, eight cases of HD were investigated for EBV latent gene expression and detection of the viral genome. Because H-RS cells represent only up to 1% of the heterogeneous lymphoma cell population, an ISH method was established to detect EBV DNA fragments on frozen lymph node sections and to simultaneously identify the H-RS cells by fluorescence immunophenotyping. Using this method, we wanted to clarify whether, in H-RS cells that do not express EBV-derived genes, the virus persists in a truncated form.
| Materials and Methods |
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Lymph node specimens of eight cases of classical HD were chosen
from the files of the lymph node registry at the Institute for
Pathology, University of Würzburg. Six biopsies were taken
out for primary diagnosis of HD. Two biopsies were taken out at
first relapse of HD. Clinical features of the HD patients are
summarized in Table 1
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Cytospins and tumor tissue sections of the Burkitts lymphoma cell line BL60-P7,13 established after subcutaneous inoculation of cells into nude mice, as well as tissue sections of a known LMP-1-positive HD case of nodular sclerosis subtype obtained from the lymph node registry in Cologne, were used for the establishment of the ISH methods to detect EBV DNA. Both sources subsequently served as positive controls. The myeloid cell line U937 served as negative control.
EBV DNA Probes
The cosmid clones cMSal-A, cMB-14, cM302-23, cM301-00, cM302-21 as well as the plasmid probe pM966-20 were kindly provided by A. Polack.14 Together, these DNA probes span the whole EBV genome in an overlapping way. The cosmid clone cMSal-1 contains about 37 kb of the viral genome hybridizing to the 5' end of the viral genome. The 3' end of the cMSal-1-derived insert overlaps with the 5' end of the insert of CMB14, containing about 40 kb of the EBV genome. The 3' end of the insert of cMB-14 overlaps with the 5' end of the insert of the clone cM302-23 containing 29 kb of the viral genome. The 3' end of the insert of cM302-23 overlaps with the 5' end of the insert of cM301-00 containing about 35 kb of the viral genome. The 3' end of the insert of cM301-00 borders on the 5' end of the insert of cM302-21 containing about 40 kb of the viral genome. The plasmid pM966-20 contains about 17 kb of the viral genome hybridizing to the terminal repeats, as well as to the LMP-1-gene. The 5' end of the insert ligated into pM966-20 overlaps with the 3' end of the insert ligated into cM302-21. The 3' end of the pM966-20-derived insert overlaps with the 5' end of the insert ligated into cMSal-A.
Fluorescence Immunophenotyping and Subsequent Fluorescence in Situ Hybridization
The fluorescence immunophenotype analysis in combination with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed by the fluorescence immunophenotyping and interphase cytogenetics as a tool for investigation of neoplasms method15 with minor modifications. For immunostaining, cryostat sections (10 µm) of HD-affected lymph nodes were fixed in an ice-cold mixture of methanol and glacial acetic acid (ratio, 1:1). The slides were washed twice in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and once in PBS supplemented with 0.1% (w/v) bovine serum albumin (BSA). The slides were then incubated with the first antibody (for CD30 staining, Ber H2; Dako, Hamburg, Germany; dilution 1:25 in PBS/0.1% BSA). After three washes with PBS/0.1% BSA, the antibody staining was detected by using a second antibody (rabbit anti-mouse Cy3; Jackson Laboratory; dilution 1:800 in PBS/01% BSA) conjugated with Cy3. This detection was enhanced using a third antibody (goat anti-rabbit Cy3; Dianova, Hamburg, Germany; dilution 1:800 in PBS/01% BSA) conjugated with Cy3. The slides were fixed in methanol/glacial acetic acid (3:1) followed by an incubation in 1% paraformaldehyde in 2x standard saline citrate (SSC). The slides were then incubated for 10 minutes in 0.1 mmol/L HCl at 37°C and washed in PBS. For subsequent FISH, the EBV DNA probes were labeled with biotin-11-dUTP (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO) by using a nick translation kit (Life Technologies, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD). Unincorporated nucleotides were removed by chromatography (Sephadex G50; Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden). DNA (125 ng) was ethanol-precipitated and vacuum-dried. Salmon sperm DNA (50 µg; Sigma) was added, and the DNA was resuspended in 25 ml of hybridization mixture, containing 50% formamide/1x SSC/1x standard saline phosphate-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid/20% dextran sulfate/0.5% Tween 20. Probe denaturation, prehybridization, hybridization, and posthybridization washes were done as previously described.16 Hybridized probes were detected by fluorescein-isothiocyanate conjugated to avidin (Vector Laboratories, Burlingame, CA). FISH analysis was performed in a blinded fashion. Thus, the LMP-1 status of H-RS cells in each case was unknown. Specific FISH signals can be distinguished from the possible background by their circular shape, their small size, and their bright fluorescence. These signals can be mainly attributed to the nucleus of a cell and were, in general, not detected in the tissue background. In addition, large fluorescent plaques or dots of irregular shape that differ in brightness and color from FISH-derived signals were occasionally detected in the tissue sections. These plaques and dots are most likely derived from autofluorescent tissue structures because they can also be observed in unstained tissue sections.
Bright-Field Immunohistochemistry
The morphological features of all cases were assessed on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-, periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)-, Giemsa-, and Gömöri-stained sections of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. Immunoperoxidase studies were performed on paraffin-embedded lymph nodes from all patients, by a three-stage indirect immunoperoxidase technique (tissueGnost 20053; Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) after antigen retrieval by pressure boiling the slides in citrate buffer for 35 minutes. The mixture of monoclonal mouse anti-LMP-1 antibodies CS14 (M0897) was purchased from Dako.
| Results |
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To analyze LMP-1-positive and LMP-1-negative HD cases for the presence
of EBV DNA in the H-RS cells, lymphoma tissues were obtained from eight
patients suffering from HD. To detect EBV DNA in H-RS cells, ISH was
performed with six different DNA probes covering the whole genome of
EBV onto fresh frozen tissue sections in a blinded fashion, ie, without
any information concerning the LMP-1 status. Simultaneously, H-RS cells
were identified within the sections by fluorescent CD30 immunostaining.
For all DNA probes, multiple hybridization signals were seen within the
nuclei of the H-RS cells of three cases, indicating the presence of
multiple copies of EBV in these cells (Figure 1)
. The hybridization signals were
broadly distributed throughout the nucleus. No substantial deletion of
the viral genome was observed in any of the three cases, because FISH
analysis of every EBV DNA probe covering at least 17 kb to nearly 40 kb
of the entire EBV genome resulted in several hybridization signals. In
contrast, none of the EBV probes used in FISH analysis revealed a
hybridization signal within the nuclei of H-RS cells of the remaining
five cases (Figure 2)
. When comparing the
FISH results with the results obtained from immunostaining to detect
LMP-1 expression, it became evident that expression of LMP-1 was
detected exclusively in the three cases in which FISH analysis revealed
the detection of the viral genome (Figure 3)
. In the remaining five cases the H-RS
cells did not express LMP-1. However, the occasional detection of
hybridization signals in very few small CD30-negative cells indicated
the presence of EBV-positive bystander cells in the vicinity of the
LMP-1 and EBV-negative H-RS cells in lymph node sections of these five
cases (Figure 2)
. The frequency of those cells varied from 0 to 2 cells
per lymph node section. The detection of at least 1 to 2 EBV-positive,
CD30-negative small cells in each patient indicated that also the
patients suffering from EBV-negative HD were carriers of EBV.
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| Discussion |
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In Burkitts lymphoma cells not expressing the EBNA-1 gene, the presence of integrated EBV genomes harboring deletions was demonstrated by Southern blot analysis.12 Thus, the use of DNA detection methods might be more successful in searching for viral fragments that cannot be detected by EBER ISH or immunostaining for LMP-1 due to the deletion of the respective genes. However, in H-RS cells, Southern blot analysis is not useful to detect EBV genomes because H-RS cells represent only a minority of cells within the affected tissue that may contain, in addition, EBV-infected nonmalignant B cells. Thus, from the detection of EBV genomes in HD tissue sections by Southern blot analysis the existence of EBV in H-RS cells cannot be directly deduced.
To detect EBV DNA in single H-RS cells, we performed FISH analysis in combination with immunofluorescence. For FISH we used a panel of overlapping EBV DNA clones spanning the whole EBV genome, which also allows detection of viral genomes carrying large deletions. As a control for the detection of an EBV fragment clonally integrated into the host cell genome, the cell line BL-60 P7 was used. In this cell line, the integrated EBV harbors a deletion of about 20 kb covering the left and right termini of EBV as well as the genes for LMP-1 and EBER-1 and -2.20 Absence of this region due to viral integration was also found in primary Burkitts lymphoma tissues12 and after the infection of a Burkitts lymphoma cell line with the B958 virus.21 Among the EBV DNA clones used in our analysis, the plasmid pM966-20 covers this region including the gene for LMP-1. As expected, in BL60-P7 cells this probe did not result in a hybridization signal, whereas the hybridization of all other cosmid clones resulted in bright hybridization signals. However, hybridization of pM 966-20 and of each of the other EBV DNA probes on tissue sections of three LMP-1-positive HD cases revealed hybridization signals in H-RS cells. Owing to its smaller size, the hybridization signals of pM966-20 on single EBV copies were dim but clearly visible. Thus, no large deletion of the EBV genome, affecting fragments containing the sequence recognized by at least one EBV DNA probe, was detected within the cases in which the H-RS cells express LMP-1. These results suggest the presence of the whole EBV genome in the H-RS cells of these cases.
By FISH on interphase nuclei, the EBV genomes can be detected in H-RS cells. The pattern of hybridization signals that are distributed throughout the nucleus of H-RS cells would be compatible with the presence of multiple episomal copies of EBV. Indeed, when EBV latently infects B cells, the majority of copies persist in an episomal form.22 Moreover, integration of part of the viral genomes has been observed in vitro for B cells that carry multiple episomal copies of EBV.23-25 However, by using FISH on interphase nuclei, whether EBV persists exclusively in H-RS cells in an episomal status cannot be distinguished, nor, in addition, whether integration into the host cell genome took place.
It was speculated that H-RS cells classified as EBV-negative might have been initially infected by EBV, but that EBV was lost during lymphoma progression.26 If integration of a fragment of the viral episomes into the host cell genome is a frequent event during EBV infection, one would expect detection of these integrated fragments in EBV-negative H-RS cells as vestiges of a former infection. Such integrated viral fragments resulting from a recombination event were detected in some cases of Burkitts lymphoma (see above). Furthermore, loss of the episomal copies of EBV was observed in several Burkitts lymphoma cell lines so that, in these cell lines, integrated EBV genomes were exclusively retained.23,25
To detect EBV fragments in H-RS cells classified as EBV-negative due to the absence of LMP-1 expression, FISH analysis was performed on five LMP-1-negative HD cases, using the whole set of EBV DNA probes. None of the EBV probes gave rise to a hybridization signal in the H-RS cells of these five cases. Thus, there is no indication for the former infection of these cells by EBV. Moreover, in these cases, the malignant phenotype of the tumor cells is not maintained by a truncated EBV genome that escapes detection by standard screening methods.
| Footnotes |
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Supported by a grant from the Frauke Weiskam Stiftung and by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through Sonderforschungsbereich 502.
Accepted for publication September 16, 1999.
| References |
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