CCR4 expression in a case of cutaneous Richter's transformation of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) to diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and in CLL patients with no skin manifestations.

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BlankCCR4 expression in a case of cutaneous Richter's transformation of chronic

lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) to diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and in CLL

patients with no skin manifestations.

NP Romina, B Mercedes, MV Carla, A Cecilia, MP Elias, ZS Romina, O Pablo, P

Fernanda, L Ignacio, BR , G Mirta, and G Romina

Eur J Haematol, March 28, 2011; .

Laboratorio de Inmunolog?a Oncol?gica, Instituto de Investigaciones

Hematol?gicas, Academia Nacional de Medicina, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Policl?nico Bancario, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Unidad de Prote?nas

Recombinantes, Instituto Pasteur de Montevideo, Uruguay. Hospital General de

Agudos Dr. T. Alvarez, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Departamento de

Microbiolog?a, Parasitolog?a e Inmunolog?a, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de

Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Objective:? Richter's transformation of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

(CLL) to cutaneous diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is very rare. We took

the advantage of one of these cases to test the hypothesis that the chemokine

receptor CCR4 is involved in the homing of CLL cells to skin. Patients and

Methods:? We evaluated CCR4 expression by flow cytometry in both, circulating

and skin CD19(+) leukemic cells from a patient with cutaneous DLBCL. As

controls, we used peripheral blood samples from CLL patients without skin

manifestations and from elderly healthy donors. Results:? We found that both,

DLBCL cells derived from the original CLL clone and circulating CLL cells from

this patient expressed CCR4. Although it was previously reported that CCR4 is

not expressed in CLL cells, we found that a low but significant proportion of

leukemic cells from CLL patients with no skin manifestations do express CCR4.

There was a positive correlation between the expression of CCR4 and the

percentage ZAP-70 of each sample. Moreover, we consistently observed a higher

expression of CCR4 within CD19(+) CD38(+) and CD19(+) Ki67(+) subsets compared

to CD19(+) CD38(-) and CD19(+) Ki67(-) lymphocytes from the same sample

respectively. Conclusion:? We conclude that the chemokine receptor CCR4 is not a

special feature of CLL cells with skin manifestation but rather it is expressed

in a low but significant proportion of peripheral blood CLL cells.

PMID: 21443542