Profiling of Hodgkin's lymphoma cell line L1236 and germinal center B cells: identification of Hodgkin's lymphoma-specific genes.

The malignant cells of classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (cHL), Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells, appear to be derived from germinal center (GC) B cells in most cases of the disease. Apart from recent findings of constitutive activation of some transcription factors and autocrine stimulation by cytokine receptors, the mechanisms of malignant transformation in cHL still remain poorly understood. We performed a large scale gene expression study using serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE), comparing the cHL cell line L1236 and human GC B cells.