Aberrant phenotypes in Kikuchi’s disease

International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology

Xue-Jing Wei¹  Jian-Lan Xie¹  Xiao-Dan Zheng¹  Xiao-Ge Zhou¹  Yuan-Yuan Zheng¹ 

关键词: Kikuchi’s disease;    histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis;    T cell lymphoma;    pan-T cell antigens;    differential diagnosis;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：生理学与病理学

来源: e-Century Publishing Corporation

【 摘 要 】

Initial reports emphasized the immunophenotypic similarities between benign and malignant T cell populations, while some previous studies indicating that aberrant T-cell antigen loss is a good marker for detecting malignant T-cell proliferation. Recently, we found a very interesting and thought-provoking phenomenon: In benign disease-28 of 38 (73.7%) cases of Kikuchi’s disease also showed aberrant phenotypes with loss of pan-T cell antigens, which makes the differential diagnosis between Kikuchi’s disease and T cell lymphoma more challenging. In our study, 38 cases of Kikuchi’s disease and 30 cases of reactive lymphoid hyperplasia (RLH) were studied by EliVision immunohistochemical staining. As well as TCR gene rearrangement using PCR was negative in 10 tested cases of the Kikuchi’s disease. Among these cases, the most common antigen deficiency was CD5 (22 cases), then CD7 (11 cases), CD2 (8 cases) and CD3 (2 cases). Compared with proliferative and xanthomatous types of Kikuchi’s disease, antigens tended to be lost in necrotizing type. Based on follow-up data, a correlation was not found between the occurrence of aberrant phenotypes and prognosis. In RLH, obvious pan-T cell antigen loss was also not found. In conclusion, this is the first study to demonstrate distinct patterns of antigen loss in Kikuchi’s disease, suggesting that T cell antigen loss is not reliable as an auxiliary diagnostic standard for T cell lymphoma.

【 授权许可】

Unknown