Study on CD44 molecule in follicular lymphoma

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Twenty-five cases of follicular lymphomas were investigated for the expression of CD44 by indirect immunohistochemical method as well as by PCR and Southern blotting analysis. Positive immunohistochemical reaction of neoplastic B-cells for antibodies against CD44 common epitopes was demonstrated in 22 of 25 cases of follicular lymphoma (FL) showing histological progression. Negative reaction was found in neoplastic small cleaved cells in three cases of FL with discrete follicular growth. No positive reaction for antibodies against variant exons 10 and 11 was found. With 23-cycle PCR,the cDNAs amplified from CD19 selected cells from CD44 positive FLs yielded a single major 482 bp band by probing with oligonucleotides from the standard CD44 coding region, but no transcripts containing variant exons were amplified. The amplification of cDNAs from FLs with diffuse areas contained the predominant 482 bp product with the week expression of the variant transcripts. These results indicate that standard CD44 is involved in the events of tumor progression of FL in its early stage, and in the transformation towards diffuse lymphoma, during which variant transcripts are formed possibly due to altered gene expression.