Eur J Haematol. 2003 Sep;71(3):224-30.
CD8+ chronic lymphocytic leukemia: an
extensive characterization of a bizarre hybrid neoplasia.
Richaud-Patin
Y, Piedras
J, Carrillo-Maravilla
E, Lopez-Karpovitch
X, Llorente
L. Departments
of Immunology and Rheumatology, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion
Salvador Zubiran,
Atypical chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) expressing the CD8 antigen have a frequency of
less than 0.5% of all cases, however, they are not yet been fully characterized. Herein a
CD8+ CLL case was extensively studied. Besides the classical CLL antigen expression, an
unusual presence of surface markers such as CD11c, CD56, and CD154 was observed. Moreover,
gene expression of chemokine receptors belonging to the CCR family were clearly evidenced
as well as mRNA for both, Th1 and Th2 cytokines. Likewise, granzyme A, B and perforin gene
expression, cytotoxic T cell or NK enzymes were found. The intricate profile of membrane
molecules and gene expression suggest that it could be favorable, rather than deletereous,
for the maintainance of the neoplastic process.
PMID: 12930326 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]