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To throw light on the question of whether B-cell–derived forms of Hodgkin's disease exist, more than 100 cases of Hodgkin's disease (including all four major histologic categories) were investigated for the presence of J chain and were also immunostained for epithelial membrane antigen and the granulocyte-associated antigen X hapten. Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin cells (RS & H) expressed J chain in 22 cases, 8 of which also expressed epithelial membrane antigen (EMA). X hapten was found in 62 cases, but all of these were J chain negative. J chain–positive RS & H cells were restricted to cases of lymphocyte-predominant disease, while X hapten–positive tumor cells were found frequently in nodular sclerosis, mixed cellularity, and lymphocyte-depletion Hodgkin's disease, but only occasionally in cases of lymphocyte-predominant disease. These findings indicate that nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease differs from the other subtypes of Hodgkin's disease and that the neoplastic cells are of B-lymphoid origin
Stein et al. (Mon,) studied this question.