Physiologic variations in granulocytic surface antigen expression: impact of age, gender, pregnancy, race, and stress

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the use of granulocytic surface markers for the diagnosis of some inherited and acquired disorders, such as Shwachman-Diamond syndrome and myelodysplastic syndromes. Understanding the impact of physiologic factors, such as age, gender, pregnancy, race, and stress on granulocytic surface markers is essential for appropriate interpretation of results. Some surface markers show marked variations at the very early and the very late stages in life. Fetal granulocytes tend to have a lower expression of CD11b, CD11c, CD18, and CD32. Term neonatal granulocytes are frequently associated with a lower expression of CD10, CD11b, CD13, CD33, and CD62L and a higher expression of CD55 and CD64. Elderly individuals have shown a higher expression of CD64. Pregnancy is associated with temporary changes in granulocytic surface markers, such as a lower expression of CD16 and a higher CD64, partially mimicking an inflammatory response. Stress also has an impact on some surface markers, particularly adhesion molecules, such as CD62L and CD54. These factors need to be taken in consideration for the optimal interpretation of granulocytic surface marker studies.

Upregulation of multi drug resistance genes in doxorubicin resistant human acute myelogeneous leukemia cells and reversal of the resistance

“…CD15 and CD16 are expressed on adult granulocytes and are maintained throughout maturation [37]. CD15 and CD16 surface markers expression analyses revealed that there were a significant decreases in expression of CD15 and CD16 markers on HL60/DOX cells as compared to parental cells thus shows less maturity of resistant cells.…”

Refining the white blood cell differential: The first flow cytometry routine application

“…Variations in antigen expression may interfere with the gating strategy, indeed CD16 expression on neutrophils can be modulated in sepsis, neonates or in cases of a genetic defect affecting around 1 in 1,000 people (16)(17)(18). Because of these possibilities, neutrophils might sometimes be detected as immature granulocytes; however, using our validation rules, …”

M-ficolin concentrations in cord blood are related to circulating phagocytes and to early-onset sepsis

“…In our current study, we found that granulocyte M-ficolin surface expression was positively correlated with increased CD16 surface expression. CD16 is differentially expressed during granulocyte development and both bands and segmented neutrophilic granulocytes show a high CD16 surface expression (21,22). Rorvig et al (14) previously reported increasing M-ficolin mRNA expression in adult myelocytes/metamyelocytes as compared with myeloblasts/ promyelocytes and band/segmented cells.…”