Establishment of the lymphoid ETS-code reveales deregulated ETS genes in Hodgkin lymphoma.

The human family of ETS transcription factors has 28 members which control several aspects of development including differentiation of blood and immune cells. Otherwise, aberrant expression of ETS genes is reportedly involved in leukemia and lymphoma. We identified ETS genes in patients with lymphoid malignancies, detecting 12 aberrantly expressed members in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). ETS gene ETV3 showed physiological expression in stem and progenitor cells in addition to developing and mature T-cells while downregulated in B-cell differentiation. In contrast, subsets of HL patients aberrantly overexpressed ETV3, indicating oncogenic activity in this B-cell malignancy.
To test the impact of JUNB and GATA3 on ETV3 regulation, we performed siRNA-mediated knockdown experiments in SUP-HD1. The results demonstrated that both, JUNB and GATA3 activated ETV3 expression in HL cells.