DETECTION OF BCL-2 REARRANGEMENT IN HIV-RELATED FOLLICULAR LYMPHOID HYPERPLASIA

Rearrangement of the bcl-2 gene at the MBR (major breakpoint region) l ocus with the immunoglobulin heavy-chain joining region has been repor ted in a high proportion of follicular lymphomas. This rearrangement h as also been reported in very few normal B cells of the blood, tonsils , follicular lymphoid hyperplasia (FLH) of the lymph nodes. HIV infect ion is often associated at the onset of the disease with FLH. but the presence of rearranged bcl-2 B cells in these lymph nodes has not been described. In using a standard PCR assay with Southern blot or a semi -nested PCR on 48 cases of FLH, we demonstrated that there were a few bcl-2 rearranged B cells in HIV FLH, at almost the same level as that in non-HIV-related FLH. The usual absence of bcl-2 rearrangement in th e HIV-associated B-cell lymphomas suggests that the bcl-2 oncogene in the rearranged B cells of FLH is not cooperating with other oncogenes during HIV lymphomagenesis.