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

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 cMaf(+) 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.