Follicular Lymphoma can be Distinguished from Benign Follicular Hyperplasia by Flow Cytometry Using Simultaneous Staining of Cytoplasmic BCL-2 and Cell Surface CD20.

Publication/Presentation Date

8-1-2000

Abstract

The distinction between benign follicular hyperplasia (FH) and follicular lymphoma (FL) is sometimes problematic. We wanted to determine whether the expression of bcl-2 of FH was quantitatively different from that of FL, using surface CD20 expression as a discriminator of the various lymphoid compartments. Lymph node cell suspensions from 12 cases of FH and 17 cases of FL were analyzed by flow cytometry using a combined surface CD20 and intracellular bcl-2 staining. CD20- T cells in FH demonstrated the same bcl-2 expression as the CD20+ mantle cells, but the bright CD20+ germinal center cells showed near absence of bcl-2 expression. In contrast, the neoplastic cells of FL showed greater bcl-2 expression than the T cells of the same tumors and all cell populations of FH. This difference was particularly significant between the neoplastic B cells of FL and the germinal center cells of FH. The combined analysis of CD20 and bcl-2 should be useful for the differential diagnosis between FH and FL and particularly applicable to limited samples or when B-cell clonality is in question. Whether the quantitation of bcl-2 expression can be of further discriminatory value in malignant lymphomas remains to be determined.

Volume

114

Issue

2

First Page

258

Last Page

263

ISSN

0002-9173

Disciplines

Medical Pathology | Pathology

PubMedID

10941341

Department(s)

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Pathology Laboratory Medicine Faculty

Document Type

Article

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