Relationship between eosinophil density and T-cell activation markers in lymph nodes of patients with Hodgkin's disease

Abstract

Hodgkin's disease (HD) is characterized morphologically by a variable infiltration of tissues by eosinophilic granulocytes. The lesions also contain numerous T cells, predominantly of the CD4+ immunophenotype. To investigate whether the presence or absence of tissue eosinophilia is related to the immunophenotype of the T cells, we studied 43 cases of HD (28 nodular sclerosing, ten mixed cellularity, and five unclassifiable) for the relative numbers of lymphocytes positive for CD2, CD3, CD4, CD5, CD8, CD25, CD38, T9, TQ1, HLA-DR, and beta F1, and for the number of eosinophils in tissue sections. By univariate and multivariate analysis, we determined that there was an inverse relationship between the number of eosinophils and the presence of TQ1+ (P less than .0005) and CD25+ (P less than .0005) lymphocytes. In addition, we observed that TQ1 stained the Reed-Sternberg cells in these lesions. We also determined that the T cells expressed HLA-DR more frequently in the nodular sclerosis subtype than in other subtypes of HD (P less than or equal to .0001). We therefore conclude that the degree of tissue eosinophilia in the lymph nodes of patients with HD may be explained, at least in part, by the immunophenotype of the T cells present in the affected lymph nodes.