Reed–Sternberg cells (also known as lacunar histiocytes for certain types) are distinctive,
immunoglobulin genes of Reed–Sternberg cells have undergone both V(D)J recombination and somatic hypermutation, establishing an origin from a germinal center or postgerminal center B cell. Despite having the genetic signature of a B cell, the Reed–Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin lymphoma fail to express most B-cell–specific genes, including the immunoglobulin genes. The cause of this wholesale reprogramming of gene expression has yet to be fully explained. It presumably is the result of widespread epigenetic changes of uncertain etiology, but is partly a consequence of so-called "crippling" mutations acquired during somatic hypermutation. Seen against a sea of B cells, they give the tissue a moth-eaten appearance.[1]
Reed–Sternberg cells are large (30–50 microns) and are either multinucleated or have a bilobed
A special type of Reed–Sternberg cell (RSC) is the lacunar histiocyte, whose cytoplasm retracts when fixed in formalin, so the nuclei give the appearance of cells that lie with empty spaces (called lacunae) between them.[4] These are characteristic of the nodular sclerosis subtype of Hodgkin lymphoma.[4]
Mummified RSCs (compact nucleus, basophilic cytoplasm, no nucleolus) are also associated with classical
Hodgkin's lymphoma while popcorn cells (small cell with hyper-lobulated nucleus and small nucleoli) are lymphohistiocytic (L-H) variant of Reed–Sternberg cells and are associated with nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma
(NLPHL).
RSCs and one RSC cell line (L1236 cells) but not other RSC cell lines express very high levels of
15-Hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid family of arachidonic acid metabolites. This is unusual in that lymphocytes typically express little or no ALOX15. It is suggested that ALOX15 and/or ALOX15B, perhaps operating through one of its arachidonic acid-derived products, the eoxins, contributes to the development and/or morphology of Hodgkin lymphoma.[5][6][7][8]
^Reed D. On the pathological changes in Hodgkin's disease, with special reference to its relation to tuberculosis. Johns Hopkins Hosp Rep 1902;10:133–96.
^Sternberg C. Uber eine eigenartige unter dem Bilde der Pseudoleukamie verlaufende Tuberculose des lymphatischen Apparates. Ztschr Heilk 1898;19:21–90.
