Relationships among expression, transcription and rearrangement of T-cell receptor Β gene in T-cell lymphomas

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Abstract
The expression of T-cell receptors (TCR) in malignant lymphomas was examined immunohistochemically by monoclonal antibodies which react with the TCRΒ or TCRδ chain. TCRΒ was expressed in 16 out of 47 non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. These included 15 T-cell lymphomas and 1 Ki-1 lymphoma. The anti-TCRΒ chain antibody,ΒF1, did not react with 26 B-cell lymphomas, 1 Ki-1 lymphoma or 6 Hodgkin's disease. The anti-TCRδ chain antibody, TCRδ1, did not react with any type of malignant lymphoma. Although TCRΒ and CD3 were co-expressed in normal lymphoid tissues and most T-cell lymphomas, 3 cases of CD3+CD4+ CD8−T-cell lymphoma failed to express TCR0. TCRΒ and Ig JH gene configurations in malignant lymphomas were examined by Southern hybridization. Although each of 9 T-cell lymphomas had a rearranged TCRΒ locus, TCRΒ gene rearrangement in the 3 cases ofΒF1−CD3+T-cell lymphomas was demonstrated by Southern blot. No transcripts of the TCRΒ gene could be found in 2 out of the 3ΒF1−CD3+T-cell lymphomas by Northern blot, indicating the lack of TCRΒ protein expression to be due to non-transcription of the TCR gene. Loss of TCRΒ proteins in these T-cell lymphomas is thus quite likely to be associated with T-cell tumour activation and progression, since 3ΒF1−CD3+T-cell lymphomas expressed CD25 (interleukin-2 receptor) to a high degree.