Nasal NK- and T-cell lymphomas share the same type of Epstein-Barr virus latency as nasopharyngeal carcinoma and Hodgkin's disease

✍ Scribed by Alan K.S. Chiang; Qian Tao; Gopesh Srivastava; Faith C.S. Ho

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 746 KB
• Volume: 68
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19961104)68:3<285::aid-ijc3>3.0.co;2-y

✦ Synopsis

Nasal T/NK-cell lymphomas can be further separated into those of natural killer (NK) cell lineage or of T-cell lineage, with differences in cellular phenotype, T-cell receptor (TcR) gene rearrangement and TcR transcript expression. Both NK-and T-cell subtypes are closely associated with Epstein-Ban virus (EBV). In this study, EBV gene expression was determined in 23 cases of nasal lymphoma (NL) by in situ hybridisation (ISH), reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IH). Of the 23 cases, 19 were classified as NK-cell and 4 as T-cell tumours. ISH for EBV-encoded small

non-polyadenylated RNAs showed that all cases, whether NK or T, harboured EBV in virtually all tumour cells. RT-PCR demonstrated that NL of both subtypes expressed EBNAl of the QUK splice pattern, the latent membrane proteins, LMPI and 2 and the BamHl A rightward transcripts in the absence of EBNA2 mRNAs, compatible with the latency type II pattern. In addition, analysis of EBV protein expression by IH revealed a heterogeneous pattern of EBV gene expression at the singlecell level consisting of both LMPI+ and LMPI-tumour cells, suggesting a mixture of latency I and II. Although 2 early lytk transcripts, BZLF I and BHRF I, were also detected in I3 and 10 cases, respectively, the lack of ZEBRA staining in any case