title: No Influence of bcl-2, p53, and p21waf1 protein expression on the outcome of pediatric Hodgkin lymphomas.
abstract: In Argentina, lymphomas account for 13.6% of all pediatric tumors and 47% of them are Hodgkin lymphoma. Previous studies of lymphoma series have reported the expression of apoptotic and cell cycle proteins. Our aim was to study these markers in our pediatric patients and correlate them with their outcome. Immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibodies anti-p53, bcl-2, p21, and mdm2 were performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded Hodgkin lymphoma lymph node biopsies from 54 pediatric patients. The analyzed oncogenes p53, bcl-2, p21, and mdm2 exhibited 81%, 44%, 76%, and 90% positive staining, respectively. The most prevalent p53/p21 expression pattern was p53+/p21+, in 57% of cases, whereas concerning p53/mdm2 expression pattern p53+/mdm2+ was observed in 61% of cases. We failed to find any statistically significant correlation between oncogene expression and patient's survival. It seems that p53 plays an important role in lymphomagenesis in our studied population, because it is overexpressed in 81% of Hodgkin lymphoma cases and in more than 50% of cases, it might be able to activate its cellular effectors. Bcl-2 staining observed in 44% of our cases could represent a failure in bcl-2 down-regulation that leads to a rescue event in defective germinal center B-cells, that allows them to develop into Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin cells.
authors.affiliation: Virology Laboratory, Ricardo Gutierrez Children's Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina. paola.chabay@yahoo.com.ar
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chabay
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pesce
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Matteo
authors.forename: Mercedes García
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Lombardi
authors.forename: Guadalupe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rey
authors.forename: María Victoria
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Preciado
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001118:Argentina; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D051736:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D016283:Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras) / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C497206:MDM2 protein, human; D051736:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2; D016283:Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras)