Morphologic Differences between Latent Membrane Protein-1 (LMP-1)-Positive and Negative Tumour Cells in Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)-Related Childhood Hodgkin's Disease

• Published in: Pathology, research and practice research and practice, 1996, Vol.192 (3), p.210-214
• Main Authors: Panayiotides, J., Kanavaros, P., Protopapa, E., Vlachonikolis, J., Tzardi, M., Kalmanti, M., Delides, G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Childhood; Cytoskeleton; EBV; Hodgkin's disease; Morphometry
• ISSN: 0344-0338; 1618-0631
• DOI: 10.1016/S0344-0338(96)80223-8

The values of five cellular morphometric parameters (longest and shortest cytoplasmic axis, cellular circumference, area and roundness coefficient) were compared between 20 Latent Membrane Protein 1 (LMP-1)-positive and an equal number of LMP-1-negative Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin (HRS) cells for each of 13 cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD) occurring in children (aged 3-15 years) ; the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) encoded EBER mRNAs had previously been detected in all cases using RNA in situ hybridisation (RISH), while the presence of LMP-1 was immunohistochemically detected using the alkaline phosphatase — antialkaline phosphatase (APAAP) method. The longest and shortest axis, circumference and area were larger in LMP-1-positive than in LMP-1 negative HRS cells, while the roundness coefficient of LMP-positive HRS cells was smaller than that of LMP-1 negative cells. All differences were statistically highly significant when univariate (paired comparisons) t-test were used. Multivariate analysis (Hotelling's T 2 test) showed all differences (except the roundness coefficient) to be significant both at the 5% and 1% level of significance. These results provide a numerical basis for the alteration brought by the expression of LMP-1 in the cellular skeleton of tumour (HRS) cells in EBV-related childhood HD cases.