The presence of ring shaped and compact nucleoli in leukemic lymphocytes divided patients into two subgroups with different outcome of the disease. Malignant lymphocytes of the majority of patients (Group 1,71 patients, 84.5%) mostly

contained ring shaped nucleoli. These patients were in stable phase and did not require any treatment during the follow up. The population of leukemic cells of a small group of B-CLL patients (Group 2, 13 patients, 15.4%) was characterized by the presence of various proportions of pathologic lymphocytes with one large compact nucleolus. Different response to the therapy discriminated the B-CLL patients whose leukemic lymphocytes revealed evident compact nucleoli at presentation, to next two subsets. Four see more of these patients (Group JNK-IN-8 2, 4/13, 31%) appeared to be resistant to chemotherapy, others (9/13, 69%) showed response to therapy, though the response time was variable. Leukemic cells with compact nucleolus morphologically resembled prolymphocytes, but hematologically and immunophenotypically did not fulfill the diagnostic criteria

for prolymphocyte population. None of our B-CLL patients had the signs of transformation to prolymphocytic or other type of B cell neoplasms during the follow up. Our results indicate the possibility of relationship between the presence of malignant lymphocytes with compact nucleoli and unfavorable outcome in patients with B-CLL. The simplicity and utility of the nucleolar test as a possible prognostic parameter may help to identify the subset of patients with early B-CLL disease that will run a more progressive course.”
“In 22q11.2 deletion patients, the normal click here decrease in T lymphocyte counts after 1-2 years is blunted such that relatively T lymphocyte numbers increase over early childhood,

probably via post-thymic expansion of peripheral lymphocytes. This may leave less T lymphocyte receptor (TCR) diversity than when derived from naive thymic emigrants. We analysed TCR V beta repertoire on 27 22q11.2 chromosome deletion patients. No patient had infection at sampling. CD3+CD4+ recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) were identified by CD45RA and CD31 expression. TCR V beta repertoire was determined using four-colour flow cytometry. Patients and controls showed significant TCR V beta family usage differences between CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD4- T lymphocyte subpopulations. V beta family abnormalities (+/- 3 SD of controls) were identified in 18/27 (67%) patients and 12/47 (25%) controls. In patients, the magnitude of expansions was increased, with some V beta families representing 37% of the cells present in the subpopulations. There was a significant increase in frequency of abnormalities in CD3+CD4+ (P < 0.001) and CD3+CD4- T lymphocytes (P < 0.05) in patients.