Preliminary Studies On The Relationship Between Human Cytomegalovirus And Hodgkin's Disease

Hodgkin's disease (HD) is a lymphoid neoplasia characterized by a low frequency of malignant Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin cells in an abundant background of non-neoplatic cells. It is one of the major malignant neoplasms in the young of the western countries, and it makes up 10 to 20 percents of all malignant lymphomas in China. Although HD was first described more than 160 years ago, it still represents an enigmatic disease. The etiology and the oncogenesis of HD remain poorly understood. Several kinds of viruses including Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), human herpesvirus type 6 and human immunodeficiency virus have been found in HD, and the relationship between EBV and HD has been extensively studied. EBV has been detected in 20 to 60 percernts of HD in different researches. However, there are still some cases of HD in which none of the above viruses was detected. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a member of the Herpesviridae family, is also a candidate of oncogenous DNA viruses. Infection of HCMV can result in formation of giant cell and intranuclear inclusion, which is similar in morphology with Reed-Sternberg cells in HD. But it is still unknown whether there is HCMV in HD let alone the relationship of them. So study of the relationship between HCMV and HD will inevitably need attention. Through several improved or more sensitive methods, we detected the DNA and three antigens of HCMV in HD...