Am J Clin Pathol. 2005 Jun;123(6):826-32.

Diagnostic usefulness of aberrant CD22 expression in differentiating neoplastic cells of B-Cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders from admixed benign B cells in four-color multiparameter flow cytometry.

Huang J, Fan G, Zhong Y, Gatter K, Braziel R, Gross G, Bakke A.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, 97201, Portland.

The diagnosis of B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders is a great challenge when made in a background of polyclonal B cells. We studied the diagnostic usefulness of aberrant CD22 expression for differentiating neoplastic from benign B cells by 4-color flow cytometry. Of 56 cases of B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders, we found that neoplastic cells showed aberrant CD22 expression in 39 (70%) of 56 cases, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma, marginal zone lymphoma, hairy cell leukemia, and follicular lymphoma. In 4 cases, monoclonality was detected definitively only by evaluating the immunoglobulin light chain restriction in B cells with aberrant CD22 expression because numerous polyclonal B cells were present. Aberrant CD22 expression is a useful marker for detection of monoclonal B cells admixed with numerous benign polyclonal B cells.

PMID: 15899772 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]