Premium
CD23 expression in mediastinal large B‐cell lymphomas
Author(s) -
Calaminici M,
Piper K,
Lee A M,
Norton A J
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2559.2004.01969.x
Subject(s) - cd23 , lymphoma , pathology , b cell , cd30 , mediastinal lymphadenopathy , antibody , immunohistochemistry , biology , follicular dendritic cells , medicine , immunology , t cell , antigen presenting cell , immunoglobulin e , biopsy , immune system
Aims: Mediastinal large B‐cell lymphoma (MLBCL) is a subtype of diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the WHO classification with peculiar features, such as female prevalence, young patient age and bulky presentation. It shows a B‐cell phenotype with variable expression of surface immunoglobulin, negative CD21 and CD10 and positive CD30 in a large number of cases. An origin from activated thymic B cells has been suggested in several studies. A subpopulation of large, dendritic cells (asteroid cells) strongly expressing CD23 has been identified amongst thymic B cells and these could represent the normal cellular counterpart for this type of primary mediastinal large cell lymphoma. Methods and results: To explore this possibility, we immunostained 24 cases of primary mediastinal lymphomas and 100 cases of non‐mediastinal, nodal and extranodal, DLBCLs for CD23 in routinely processed paraffin‐embedded tissues. Conclusions: Our results show that a vast majority (70%) of mediastinal lymphomas strongly express CD23 whilst the same antigen is expressed in only 15% of non‐mediastinal nodal DLBCLs and 9% of non‐mediastinal extranodal DLBCLs. These results support the hypothesis that most cases of MLBCL arise from activated dendritic thymic B cells. We also suggest that CD23 should be included in the panel of antibodies currently used to characterize this subtype of DLBCL.