Immunoglobulin V Genes in Reed–Sternberg Cells

To the Editor: Hummel et al. (Oct. 5 issue) 1 report the polyclonality of Reed–Sternberg cells in 6 of 12 cases of Hodgkin's disease. In three other cases, there were mixed polyclonal and monoclonal populations of Reed–Sternberg cells, and in three cases the cells were monoclonal. We are concerned about the reported results of this study. In an analysis of single Reed–Sternberg cells micromanipulated from frozen tissue sections for heavy-chain ( VH ) and kappa light-chain ( V κ) gene rearrangements, we detected clonal V gene rearrangements in 11 of 12 cases investigated, 3 which have already been reported. 2 No rearrangements . . .