title: Humoral immune abnormalities in T-cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia.
abstract: The prevalence of humoral immune dysfunction has not been defined in a large series of patients with T-cell large granular lymphocyte leukemia (T-LGL) confirmed to be clonal by T-cell receptor analysis. Therefore we evaluated the presence of multiple autoantibodies in 27 patients with this disease. Humoral immune abnormalities included: rheumatoid factor (RF) (15/27 patients), antinuclear antibody (ANA) (13/27 patients), polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia (15/24 patients), elevated serum immunoglobulins (17/26 patients), immune complex formation (18/25 patients), elevated beta-2 microglobulin (13/18 patients) and neutrophil-reactive IgG (18/20 patients). Disease manifestations in these patients were due to complications of cytopenia or autoimmune abnormalities. Infection was a common finding (21/27 patients) and likely reflected their neutropenia. Rheumatoid arthritis (11/27 patients), anemia (12/27 patients) and thrombocytopenia (10/27 patients) were less common but still frequently observed. This study demonstrates the presence of multiple autoantibodies in a large series of patients with documented clonal T-LGL proliferations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, State University of New York at Syracuse, USA.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Gentile
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Wener
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Starkebaum
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Loughran
mesh_terms: D000917:Antibody Formation / Q000276:immunology; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies