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

NANNINI PAULA; BORGE MERCEDES; MIKOLAITIS VANESA; ABREU CECILIA; MORANDE PABLO; ZANETTI SAMANTA; OPPEZZO PABLO; PALACIOS FERNANDA; LEDESMA IGNACIO; BEZARES FERNANDO; GIORDANO MIRTA; GAMBERALE ROMINA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; First French-Argentine Immunology Congress, 2010; 2010

Vol.1No. 3:4doi: 10:3823/413 p4 B cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is characterized by alymphocytosis of clonal CD5+ B lymphocytes. CLL transformationto Richter´s syndrome (RS) is a highly aggressive syndromecommonly represented by a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)that arises from the original CLL clone. RS usually developsin lymph nodes and its cutaneous spread is very rare. CCR4 is thespecific receptor for CCL17 and CCL22 (two chemokines highlyproduced in skin) and its expression was associated with normaland malignant T cell homing to skin and in a case of cutaneousDLBCL not related to CLL. Given that a skin RS transformationof CLL to DLBCL was detected in one of our patients, wehypothesized 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% ofhis circulating CLL cells were CCR4+ and were able to migratetowards CCL22 in a chemotaxis assay (CD19+ migration index to0 and 2000 ng/ml of CCL22: 100 vs 145). In order to determinewhether CCR4 expression was a special feature of this patient,we evaluated CCR4 expression on circulating CD19+ cells fromCLL patients with no skin manifestations and elderly healthydonors. We found that CD19+ cells from these patients expresssimilar levels of CCR4 but in a lower proportion than healthydonors (n=20, p