Epstein-barr nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1) in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and its relationship to the bcl-2 protein.

AIM To determine EBNA-1 expression in the tissue of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and its relationship to bcl-2 expression. METHODS Paraffin-embedded tissue from 24 cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma were stained immunohisto chemically with monoclonal antibody anti-EBNA-1 and anti-bcl-2 using Streptavidin Biotin Complex method. The bcl-2 expression was measured as negative (no staining), positive 1 (weak staining), and positive 2 (moderate to strong staining). The relationship between the immunohisto chemistry results was examined. RESULTS From the 24 samples, 12 (50%) were EBNA-1 positive and 14 (58.3%) showed expression of bcl-2. Eleven of the 14 samples (90%) showed expression of bcl-2 were EBNA-1 positive, while only 3 of these samples (10%) were EBNA-1 negative. The relationship between bcl-2 expression and EBNA-1 was statistically significant (Chi square-uncorrected 11.2571, p= 0.0036). CONCLUSION Our results showed that 50% of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma were EBNA-1 positive. Furthermore, EBNA-1 seemed to be correlated with bcl-2 expression.