title: Peripheral blood B lymphocytes in multiple myeloma.
abstract: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a disease of terminally differentiated B lineage cells and thus alterations in circulating B cells may be anticipated. We studied peripheral blood B cells by flow cytometry in 45 untreated MM patients and compared the results to 25 age-matched controls. The total lymphocyte count and the absolute number and percentage of CD20+ cells were significantly decreased in MM patients. Analysis of the relative amounts of CD20+ cells expressing surface immunoglobulin kappa or lambda light chain isotype did not show either clonal B cell excess or light chain isotype suppression. The percentages of CD10+ and CD20+10+ cells were low both in MM patients and in controls. We consider that the CD20+ cells analysed in this study mainly consisted of normal polyclonal B cells. However, the percentage of the CD20+ cells in the peripheral blood of MM patients was a prognostic factor for survival, both as a continuous and as a dichotomized variable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology, Turku University Central Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tienhaara
authors.forename: T T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Pelliniemi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000097:blood; D018951:Antigens, CD20; D000944:Antigens, Differentiation, B-Lymphocyte / Q000097:blood; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007132:Immunoglobulin Isotypes / Q000097:blood; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains / Q000097:blood; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D015260:Neprilysin / Q000097:blood; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D018951:Antigens, CD20; D000944:Antigens, Differentiation, B-Lymphocyte; D007132:Immunoglobulin Isotypes; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains; D015260:Neprilysin