Expression of mic2/CD99 protein and their correlation with Eber-1/LMP-1 in Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma

AIM: To study the expression of mic2/CD99 protein and their correlation with Eber-1/LMP-1 in Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining, in situ hybrization and tissue microarry technique were used to detect the expressions of mic2/CD99 and Eber-1/LMP-1 of H/RS cells in 43 cases of cHL and 16 cases of NHL. RESULTS: The positive rate of CD99 protein expression in 43 cases of cHL was 2.3％ (1/43), mic2 was 55.8％ (24/43), LMP1 was 58.1％ (25/43) and Eber-1 was 53.5％ (23/43). The expressions of CD99 and mic2 in the NHL group were higher than those in cHL group (P<0.05). The expressions of LMP1 and Eber-1 in NHL group were lower than those in cHL group (P<0.05). The expression of mic2 was higher than CD99 in cHL group (P<0.05). There was no difference between the expression of Eber-1 and LMP1 in cHL group statistically (P>0.05). There was a negative correlation between the expression of CD99 protein and LMP1 in H/RS cells (P<0.05). No correlation was found between the expression of any other markers in H/RS cells and patients' sex (P>0.05). There was a significant correlation between the high expression of LMP1 and a low expression of CD99 in the young patients (P<0.05), but no correlation was found between the expression of mic2 and Eber-1 in young patients (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: There is a negative correlation between the expression of LMP1 and CD99 in Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma.