Reed-Sternberg cells cultured from morphologically unidentifiable precursors in the blood of patients with Hodgkin's disease.

Abstract

In order to examine whether morphologically unidentifiable precursors of Reed-Sternberg cells (RSC) may circulate in the blood of patients with untreated Hodgkin's Disease (HD), mononuclear leukocytes were isolated from the blood of 33 consecutive patients and cultured in soft agar. Abnormal colonies containing multinucleated giant cells developed in the specimens of 12 patients. These cells had the light and electron microscopic appearance of RSC. They were positive for alpha-naphthyl acetate and alpha-naphthyl butyrate esterases, acid phosphatase and lysozyme, bespeaking their monocyte/macrophage lineage. The observations suggest that unidentifiable precursors of RSC could be responsible for hematogenous spread of the disease in some cases. Moreover, since RS-like cells developed in the specimens of 8 patients with stage I and II HD, it may be useful to evaluate whether soft agar colony culture would yield data of prognostic significance in patients with early disease.