DETECTION OF THE EXPRESSION OF THE EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS LATENT GENE-PRODUCT IN HODGKINS LYMPH-NODES BY IMMUNOSTAINING - COMPARISON BETWEEN PARAFFIN SECTIONS AND IMPRINTS

The latent membrane protein (LMP) of Epstein-Barr virus can be detecte d by an immunostaining method in about 50% of Hodgkin's disease lymph node tumour cells on frozen sections. The same method had been success fully employed on paraffin-embedded (PE) sections. We used this immuno staining method on imprints (IF) and PE sections of 26 Hodgkin's lymph nodes. Overall, there were 11 LMP-positive cases; immunostaining was stronger in IP than in PE samples; in nine cases both LP and PE sample s were LMP-positive; in two, imprints were LMP-positive when PE sectio ns were LMP-negative.