Burkitt Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in childhood

Abstract

40 from German children. The expression of EBV gene products was studied by in situ hybridization for EBER. EBV positive tumor cells were found in 87% (47/54) pediatric BL. An unexpected expression of latent membrane protein (LMP) -1 of EBV was observed in the neighborhood of Schistosoma mansoni granulomas and scars. The frequency of EBV infection was higher in pediatric (87%) than in adulthood HL (55%) in the same area (p <0,005). The EBV-infection was related more frequently to LNH occurring in AIDS patients than in immunocompetent patients (p=0.002). The overall EBV infection rate in Bahian and German tonsils was similar (50 per cent of Bahian and 45 per cent of German tonsils). However, a significantly higher number of EBERpositive lymphoid cells were found in the germinal centers (GCs) of 8/20 EBV-positive tonsils from Brazil), while only 3/18 tonsils from Germany displayed a few EBER positive cells (1-9 cells/GC; mean: 0.5 cell/GC per case) in this compartment (p < 0.007). In addition, in two cases the EBV-infected GC cells in Bahian samples expressed an oncogenic protein, the EBV-encoded latent membrane protein (LMP)-1, findings not present in German samples. In conclusion, we shown a high frequency of EBV-associated lymphoma in pediatric and AIDS patients and therefore EBV-infection may play a major role in the lymphomagenesis in these groups. Since BL and HL are derived from GC cells, the similar rate of EBV-infection in pediatric BL and HL corroborate the hypothesis that the pattern of EBV-infection in GC may be related to the development of these lymphomas in developing areas.