Abstract
Background and objectives: B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders (B-CLPD) are a heterogeneous group of disease that characterized based on cell morphology and immunological markers as proposed by the FAB group. Immunophenotyping is an essential diagnostic tool for discriminating B from T-cell disorders and for distinguishing B-cell chronic leukemias from each other. In order to design appropriate immunophenotyping panels, 54 patients with B-CLPD investigated.
Materials and Methods: Blood samples from 54 Patients with typical or atypical B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), Adult T cell Leukemia /lymphoma (ATLL), B prolymphocytic leukemia (B-PLL), B-non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (B-NHL) in leukemic phase, and Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) were studied by applying specific anti bodies to 26 different antigens on B, T, and NK cells with direct immuno fluorescence method by flow cytometr.
Results: Except in B-CLL (typical and atypical), CD5, CD19, and CD23 did not co-express on the cells of patients with HCL and B-NHL in leukemic phase. The intensity of aberrantly expressed CD5 in B-CLL is lower than on the residual CD5+/CD19-cells that seem to be normal T-cells in the same patients. Intensity of CD19 and CD22 in typical B-CLL is lower than other B-cell disorders and unlike some reports only few percent of typical B-CLLs were CD22 negative. No significant difference for expression of CD20 was found among the patients. Expression of other lymphoid markers with some exception was the same reported cases.
Conclusion: Flow cytometry is a significant diagnostic tool for classification of such disorders and therefore, in order to benefited by this machine that use relatively expensive reagents, we propose three panels: the first panel for all new patients with T and B-CLPD, second panel for study of T and NK nature of cells and third panel that help to identify different B lymphoid cells in B-CLPDs.