Analysis of CD23 antigen expression in B-chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and its correlation with clinical parameters

Abstract

B-Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (B-CLL) is a monoclonal malignancy characterized by an accumulation of terminally differentiated small and anergic B lymphocytes in the blood, bone marrow and other tissues. CD23 antigen, a trans-membrane glycoprotein, promotes the activation and proliferation of normal B lymphocytes and has an important role in the process of malignant transformation in B-CLL. This retrospective cohort study of 77 consecutive newly diagnosed B-CLL patients, 43 males, 34 females, median age of 62 years, examined CD23 expression and correlations with clinical parameters. CD23+ was negatively correlated with pro-lymphocyte infiltration of the bone marrow (P<0.01) and peripheral blood lymphocyte counts (P<0.001). Lower CD23 expression was correlated with lower serum immunoglobulin levels (P<0.05), especially IgG; while greater CD23 expression was positively correlated with higher CD5 levels. B-CLL patients with a percentage of CD23+ lymphocytes >40% had longer survival (92.8 months) than those expressing <40% (35.3 months) (P=0.001). CD23 is not uniformly expressed by lymphocytes in B-CLL patients, and the differences in expression are dependent on a number of clinical parameters, including the peripheral blood lymphocyte count and the degree of pro-lymphocyte infiltration of the bone marrow. CD23 expression is significantly decreased in patients with extremely high lymphocyte counts (PBL counts of >100 x 10(9)/l) and in the advanced stages of disease.

Differential and tumor-specific expression of CD160 in B-cell malignancies

“…However, biologic heterogeneity includes rare CD23 Ϫ cases of CLL, whereas CD23 positivity in MCL is not uncommon. [26][27][37][38] In our test and validation cohorts, 13 of 42 (31%) cases of MCL in leukemic phase were CD23 ϩ , whereas 5 MCL cases in the test cohort had a mini-CLL score of 3. The diagnostic discriminant was useful in such cases with an atypical immunophenotype by combining the information from the CD160FCA on the mini-CLL score and the level of CD23 expression ( Figure 5C).…”

Integration of automated morphological features resolves a distinct group of atypical chronic lymphocytic leukemias with chromosomal aberrations

“…Cell staining and FACS analysis of ZAP-70 expression were performed similar to the method described by Crespo et al [16]. Results for CD20, CD23 and FMC7 expression levels were further subgrouped based on the published literature: CD23 was dichotomized to negative/low or high expression subgroups using a cut-off of 50% positive CLL cells [17][18][19]; FMC7 was classified into negative/low or high expression subgroups using a cutoff of 40% positive CLL cells [11]. CD20 and immunoglobulin light chain expression levels were subclasiffied into low, intermediate and high flouresence intensity CLL cells.…”

Changes in Antigen Expression in a Follow-up of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia/Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma

“…Nevertheless, for select antigens significant differences occurred in the percentages of positive neoplastic cells and/or in the antigen density. The most prominent differences were seen in the expression of CD23, CD5 and HLA-DR. [15] reported that the percentage of CD23 positive cells and CD23 antigen expression level is highly variable among CLL/SLL patients. In Juristic's study, the higher percentage of CD23 positive cells was associated with longer survival and lower percentages of CD23 positive cells were seen in the advanced stages of the disease and in patients with high lymphocyte counts.…”