Molecular single cell analysis demonstrates the derivation of a peripheral blood-derived cell line (L1236) from the Hodgkin Reed-Sternberg cells of a Hodgkin's lymphoma patient

A novel cell line, L1236, was established from the peripheral blood of a patient with Hodgkin's disease (HD). Two Ig V-H and one V-kappa gene rearrangements were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from the DNA of this cell line, demonstrating its derivation from the B-cell lineage. To test the cell line for its clonal relationship to the Hodgkin/Reed-Sternberg (H-RS) cells in the patient, single H-RS cells were micromanipulated from tissue sections of a tumor-infiltrated bone marrow specimen from that patient and analyzed by PCR for Ig gene rearrangements. The same rearrangements detected in the cell line were also found repeatedly in H-RS cells of the biopsy material. Thus, L1236 is the first cell line established from a case of HD for which a derivation from the H-RS cells of the patient could be demonstrated. Furthermore, the selective isolation of identical V gene rearrangements from multiple single H-RS cells demonstrates that these cells represented a clonal population in the patient. (C) 1996 by The American Society of Hematology.