Cytokine gene expression in neoplastic B cells from human mantle cell, follicular, and marginal zone lymphomas and in their postulated normal counterparts.

Cytokines may promote tumor growth by paracrine and/or autocrine pathways. Little information is available because malignant cells differ from their normal counterparts for the cytokine repertoire they express. Here we have investigated by reverse transcription-PCR the expression of 22 cytokine genes in neoplastic B lymphocytes from six patients with mantle cell lymphoma, 10 with follicular lymphoma, and 5 with marginal zone lymphoma and in their normal counterparts, i.e., naive, germinal center, and memory B cells, purified from tonsils. The overall profiles of cytokine gene expression in neoplastic B cells and in the corresponding normal B-cell subsets were similar, but some "holes" in the repertoire of malignant versus normal B lymphocytes were detected. Different "hole" combinations were identified consistently in mantle cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, and marginal zone lymphoma, thus representing molecular fingerprints of each individual lymphoma entity.