INVESTIGADORES
GAMBERALE Romina
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
10. CCR4 expression in a case of cutaneous Richters transformation of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) to diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and in CLL patients with no skin manifestations.
Autor/es:
NANNINI PAULA ROMINA; BORGE MERCEDES; MIKOLAITIS VANESA CARLA; ABREU CECILIA; MORANDE PABLO; OPPEZZO PABLO; PALACIOS F; LEDESMA IGNACIO; BEZARES RAIMUNDO FERNANDO; GIORDANO MIRTA; GAMBERALE ROMINA
Lugar:
caba
Reunión:
Congreso; 1° French-Argentine Immunology Congress,; 2010
Resumen:
B cell
chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is characterized by a lymphocytosis of
clonal CD5+ B lymphocytes. CLL transformation to Richter´s syndrome
(RS) is a highly aggressive syndrome commonly
represented by a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
(DLBCL) that arises from the original CLL clone. RS usually develops in lymph
nodes and its cutaneous spread is very rare. CCR4 is the specific receptor for
CCL17 and CCL22 (two chemokines highly produced in skin) and its expression was
associated with normal and malignant T cell homing to skin and in a case of cutaneous
DLBCL not related to CLL. Given that a skin RS transformation of CLL to
DLBCL was detected in one of our patients, we hypothesized
that his circulating CLL cells may express CCR4. We found that 11% of cutaneous
CD19+ cells expressed CCR4, evaluated by flow cytometry, and more
interestingly, also 7% of his circulating CLL cells were CCR4+ and
were able to migrate towards CCL22 in a chemotaxis assay (CD19+
migration index to 0 and 2000 ng/ml of CCL22: 100 vs 145). In order to determine
whether CCR4 expression was a special feature of this patient, we evaluated the
CCR4 expression on circulating CD19+ cells from CLL patients with no
skin manifestations and elderly healthy donors. We found that CD19+
cells from these patients express similar levels of CCR4 but in a lower
proportion than healthy donors (n=20, p<0.0001). Moreover, CD19+CCR4+
cells might be more activated than the CCR4- ones, since the
proportion of cells expressing the activation marker CD38 is higher in the
former subpopulation (n=18, p<0.001). Since we reported that leukemic cells from CLL
patients, independently of the presence of a cutaneous RS express CCR4, we can
conclude that the expression of CCR4 on CLL cells seems not to be related to
the cutaneous transformation of CLL cells. It remains to be determined whether
the expression or
functionality of CCR4 is augmented in leukemic cells of CLL patients who
develop other skin manifestations.