Flow cytometric analysis of normal B cell differentiation: a frame of reference for the detection of minimal residual disease in precursor-B-ALL (original) (raw)

Immunobiology

Leukemia volume 13, pages 419–427 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

During the last two decades, major progress has been made in the technology of flow cytometry and in the availability of a large series of monoclonal antibodies against surface membrane and intracellular antigens. Flow cytometric immunophenotyping has become a diagnostic tool for the analysis of normal and malignant leukocytes and it has proven to be a reliable approach for the investigation of minimal residual disease (MRD) in leukemia patients during and after treatment. In order to standardize the flow cytometric detection of MRD in acute leukemia, a BIOMED-1 Concerted Action was initiated with the participation of six laboratories in five different European countries. This European co-operative study included the immunophenotypic characterization and enumeration of different precursor and mature B cell subpopulations in normal bone marrow (BM). The phenotypic profiles in normal B cell differentiation may form a frame of reference for the identification of aberrant phenotypes of precursor-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (precursor-B-ALL) and may therefore be helpful in MRD detection. Thirty-eight normal BM samples were anal- yzed with five different pre-selected monoclonal antibody combinations: CD10/CD20/CD19, CD34/CD38/CD19, CD34/ CD22/CD19, CD19/CD34/CD45 and TdT/CD10/CD19. Two CD19− immature subpopulations which coexpressed B cell-associated antigens were identified: CD34+/CD22+/CD19− and TdT+/CD10+/CD19−, which represented 0.11 ± 0.09% and 0.04 ± 0.05% of the total BM nucleated cells, respectively. These immunophenotypes may correspond to the earliest stages of B cell differentiation. In addition to these minor subpopulations, three major CD19+ B cell subpop- ulations were identified, representing three consecutive maturation stages; CD19dim/CD34+/TdT+/CD10bright/CD22dim/ CD45dim/CD38bright/CD20− (subpopulation 1), CD19+/CD34−/ TdT−/CD10+/CD22dim/CD45+/CD38bright/CD20dim (subpopulation 2) and CD19+/CD34−/TdT−/CD10−/CD22bright/CD45bright/CD38dim/ CD20bright (subpopulation 3). The relative sizes of subpopulations 1 and 2 were found to be age related: at the age of 15 years, the phenotypic precursor-B cell profile in BM changed from the childhood 'immature' profile (large subpopulations 1 and 2/small subpopulation 3) to the adult 'mature' profile (small subpopulation 1 and 2/large subpopulation 3). When the immunophenotypically defined precursor-B cell subpopulations from normal BM samples are projected in fluorescence dot-plots, templates for the normal B cell differentiation pathways can be defined and so-called 'empty spaces' where no cell populations are located become evident. This allows discrimination between normal and malignant precursor-B cells and can therefore be used for MRD detection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BIOMED-1 Concerted Action: Department of Hematology, Portuguese Institute of Oncology, Lisbon, Portugal
    P Lúcio & A Parreira
  2. BIOMED-1 Concerted Action: Department of Immunology, University Hospital Dijkzigt/Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
    MWM van den Beemd, EG van Lochem & JJM van Dongen
  3. BIOMED-1 Concerted Action: Dutch Childhood Leukemia Study Group, The Hague, The Netherlands
    ER van Wering & E Baars
  4. BIOMED-1 Concerted Action: Department of Pathology, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
    A Porwit-MacDonald & E Bjorklund
  5. BIOMED-1 Concerted Action: Clinica Pediatrica, University of Milan, Ospedale San Genaro, Monza, Italy
    G Gaipa & A Biondi
  6. BIOMED-1 Concerted Action: Department of Hematology, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
    A Orfao & JF San Miguel
  7. BIOMED-1 Concerted Action: Department of Immunology, Royal Free Hospital, London, UK
    G Janossy

Authors

  1. P Lúcio
  2. A Parreira
  3. MWM van den Beemd
  4. EG van Lochem
  5. ER van Wering
  6. E Baars
  7. A Porwit-MacDonald
  8. E Bjorklund
  9. G Gaipa
  10. A Biondi
  11. A Orfao
  12. G Janossy
  13. JJM van Dongen
  14. JF San Miguel

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Lúcio, P., Parreira, A., van den Beemd, M. et al. Flow cytometric analysis of normal B cell differentiation: a frame of reference for the detection of minimal residual disease in precursor-B-ALL.Leukemia 13, 419–427 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2401279

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