title: Pro-T ALL: immunophenotypical analyses.
abstract: Pro-T acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL), also called T-I ALL, are extremely rare diseases where cells at the earliest defined stage of T-lineage maturation proliferate in the bone marrow. They are characterized by the absence of all T-lineage differentiation markers except intracytoplasmic CD3 and surface CD7. They may express markers of immaturity and a number of myeloid lineage markers, without reaching the score defining biphenotypic acute leukemia (BAL). A literature search was performed on Medline and the few publications devoted to this disorder are reviewed in this manuscript. Attempts at understanding the mechanisms leading to the development of T-I ALL, based mostly on animal experiments are further presented.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Immunologie du CHU, Faculté de Médecine de Nancy, Vandoeuvre les Nancy, France. bene@medecine.uhp-nancy.fr
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Béné
mesh_terms: D019070:Cell Lineage; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000276:immunology*