Follicular dendritic cells display microvesicle-associated LMP1 in reactive germinal centers of EBV+ classic Hodgkin lymphoma

Expression of the latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1) of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was investigated in 153 cases of EBV+ classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL); 120 cases were pediatric patients (< 14 years of age) from Iraq, and 33 cases were adult patients from Italy. We describe for the first time the presence of LMP1 protein in EBV-encoded RNA (EBER)-negative follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) of reactive germinal centers (GC) associated with EBV+ cHL. Presence of LMP1+ GCs was independent of geographic region and age of patients. Variable numbers of reactive GCs were present in 22.2% of cases (34 of 153), whereas LMP1 staining of FDCs was present in about a third of cases (10 of 34) with reactiv…