ISSN:
1365-2559
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphoma (EATCL) is a rare complication of coeliac disease. We investigated whether EATCLs are the neoplastic counterparts of activated cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs).〈section xml:id="abs1-2"〉〈title type="main"〉Methods and results:Eight cases, clinically and histologically defined, were stained with monoclonal antibodies against components of the cytotoxic granules of CTLs, granzyme B and T-cell restricted intracellular antigen (TIA-1). It was found that all cases had a cytotoxic phenotype, i.e. expression of TIA-1 in most of the tumour cells, whereas granzyme B was found in six of eight cases, mostly in a smaller number of tumour cells compared to TIA-1. Since TIA-1 and granzyme B are expressed at different stages of activation of CTLs it is hypothesized that differences in expression between granzyme B and TIA-1 in EATCL represent different stages of activation in which the tumour cells are arrested. Clinically, seven of the eight patients died within 10 months after diagnosis of EATCL.〈section xml:id="abs1-3"〉〈title type="main"〉Conclusions:EATCL is a clinicopathological entity with a grim prognosis and with tumour cells representing a unique neoplastic equivalent of CTLs arrested in varying stages of activation.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2559.1997.2660862.x
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