Signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 is frequently activated in Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells of Hodgkin lymphoma

The unique clinicopathologic features of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) are due to the multiple cytokines produced by its neoplastic cells, the Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells. Cytokine signaling is mediated through the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family of transcription factors. Immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry were used to examine cell lines and tissue sections derived from patients with HL and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) for expression of activated STAT proteins. Constitutive phosphorylation of STAT6 and STAT3 was common in HL. STAT6 was constitutively phosphorylated in 5 of 5 HL cell lines and in HRS cells from 25 of 32 (78%) classical HL cases. STAT3 was constitutively phosphorylated in 4 of 5 HL cell lines and in HRS cells from 27 of 31 (87%) classical HL cases. Only 4 of 24 NHL cases demonstrated constitutive STAT6 activation, whereas STAT3 activation was observed in 6 of 13 (46%) cases of B-cell NHL and 8 of 11 (73%) cases of T-cell NHL. Constitutive STAT5 phosphorylation was not a common feature of HL or NHL. STAT6 mediates signaling by interleukin 13 (IL-13), a cytokine frequently expressed by HRS cells. Antibody-mediated neutralization of IL-13 resulted in significant decreases in both cellular proliferation and levels of phosphorylated STAT6 of HL cell lines. In conclusion, constitutive STAT6 phosphorylation is a common and distinctive feature of HRS cells in classical HL, whereas STAT3 activation was regularly present in both HL and NHL. These results suggest that IL-13 signaling is largely responsible for the constitutive STAT6 activation observed in HRS cells and further implicate IL-13 as an important growth factor in classical HL.