We have previously reported functional alterations in vitro in the hematopoietic compartment of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). In the present study, we assessed the presence of molecular alterations in hematopoietic cells derived from DLBCL marrow. Accordingly, the expression of four genes (i.e. ice, bcl-2, c-myc and p53) was assessed both, at the mRNA and protein levels, in three cell populations: (i) population I, consisting of morphologically recognizable precursor and mature cells; (ii) population II, enriched for CD34+ Lineage-negative (Lin-) cells; and (iii) population III, enriched for CD34+ CD38- Lin- cells. By using a multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction system, we observed reduced expression of bcl-2 in population I, and c-myc in populations I and II from lymphoma marrow compared to their normal counterparts. On the other hand, expression of ice and p53 was not significantly different when comparing normal and DLBCL samples. At the protein level, all four molecules were expressed in a higher proportion of samples from DLBCL patients than in marrow samples from normal subjects. Interestingly, these proteins were expressed predominantly in primitive cells (population III), whereas the proportion of positive samples was reduced in population II, and even more in population I. Taken together, our results indicate that, in DLBCL, molecular alterations are present in hematopoietic cells from bone marrow, including morphologically recognizable precursor and mature cells, as well as primitive hematopoietic progenitors (CD34+ cells). To date, the physiological implications of these alterations are still unclear, and further studies should be undertaken to address this issue.