Proliferation characteristics of the various classes of cells in Hodgkin's disease

Quantitative cytochemical and autoradiographic examinations were made in cytologic preparations from lymph nodes involved with Hodgkin's disease. Cell division was confined to 3 main cell types: large basophilic transformed lymphocytes, smaller lymphocytic cells, and mononuclear Hodgkin's reticuluin cells. The DNA content of the majority of the transformed lymphocyte and other lymphoid cells appeared to fall within the normal diploid range, while considerable aneuploidy could occur in the Hodgkin's reticulum cell line. The overall tritiated thymidine labelling index of the transformed lymphocytes was high, the Hodgkin's reticulum cells showed a considerably lower labelling index, and multinucleate Sternberg-Reed cells showed no evidence of DNA synthesis.