title: Benign hematogone-rich lymphoid proliferations can be distinguished from B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia by integration of morphology, immunophenotype, adhesion molecule expression, and architectural features.
abstract: Distinction of normal B-lymphoid proliferations including precursors known as hematogones from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is critical for disease management. We present a multiparameter assessment of 27 bone marrow samples containing at least 25% hematogones (range, 25%-72%) by morphologic review. We used flow cytometry to evaluate B-cell differentiation antigen and adhesion molecule expression and immunohistochemistry on clot sections to evaluate architectural distribution. Flow cytometry revealed that intermediately differentiated cells (CD19+, CD10+) predominated, followed in frequency by CD20+, surface immunoglobulin-positive cells, with CD34+, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-positive cells as the smallest subset. Adhesion molecules (CD44, CD54) were expressed more heterogeneously compared with expression in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Immunohistochemistry revealed that CD34+, TdT-positive cells were dispersed without significant clustering, while CD20+ cells exceeded CD34/TdT-positive cells in 24 of 25 cases. This multidisciplinary study demonstrates that hematogone-rich lymphoid proliferations exhibit a spectrum of B-lymphoid differentiation antigen expression with predominance of intermediate and mature B-lineage cells, heterogeneity of adhesion molecule expression, and nonclustered bone marrow architectural distribution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Rimsza
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Foucar
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Garner
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Leith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000378:metabolism*; D002455:Cell Division; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules