Study on CD44 molecule in follicular lymphoma

应用间接免疫组化法、聚合酶链式反应和Southern印迹法检测25例滤泡性淋巴瘤中CD44的表达。25例滤泡性淋巴瘤(FL)中，22例肿瘤B细胞呈CD44共同表位抗体免疫组织化学阳性反应。3例滤泡离散生长的FL中，肿瘤性小裂解细胞呈阴性反应。10号和11号变异外显子抗体均未见阳性反应。从CD44阳性FLS的CD19细胞中扩增出的cDNA经标准CD44编码区的寡核苷酸检测，扩增出一条482bp的单一条带，但未扩增出含有变异外显子的转录本。从弥漫区的FLS中扩增的cDNA含有482bp的主要产物，并有弱表达的变异型转录本。这些结果表明，标准CD44参与了FL早期的肿瘤进展和向弥漫性淋巴瘤的转化，在此过程中可能由于基因表达的改变而形成了不同的转录本。

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.