Identification of CD3 Associated T Cell Receptor as a Diagnostic Tool in T Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma or Leukemia.

By using several monoclonal antibodies (mAb) reacting either with the constant or variable regions of the T cell receptors (TcR) αβ and γδ or various CD molecules, differences between two clinically related entities e.g. T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LL) have been demonstrated. We studied a panel of fifteen T-ALL and fifteen T-LL because of their cell surface expression of the CD3-TcR molecules. The results indicated that TcR γδ is more frequently expressed in T-ALL (10 out of the 15 patients tested) than TcR αβ. This is in contrast to the results obtained with T-LL where the vast majority showed TcR αβ (13 out of the 15 patients). We discuss the significance of these findings which may imply that the leukemic cells are of a different origin in these two diseases. In addition analysis of TcR variable regions expressed by the leukemic blasts showed that in most cases they had rearranged functional Vδ1 gene to Jδ1 or Jδ2 segments (8 out of 11 patients) whereas in a unique case Vδ2 gene segment was evident. Taken together these results and those showing that T-ALL cells coexpress the CD1a, b and c molecules strengthen the possibility that despite the fact that these leukemic cells express the CD3-TcR complex at their surface their normal counterparts are not found in peripheral blood.