Gessain A, Moulonguet I, Flageul B, Perrin P, Capesius C, D'Agay MF, Gisselbrecht C, Sigaux F, Civatte J. Cutaneous type of adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma in a French West Indian woman. Clonal rearrangement of T-cell receptor beta and gamma genes and monoclonal integration of HTLV-I proviral DNA in the skin infiltrate.
J Am Acad Dermatol 1990;
23:994-1000. [PMID:
2172339 DOI:
10.1016/0190-9622(90)70321-8]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
A 45-year-old woman, a native of the French West Indies who had lived in France since 1973, developed multiple cutaneous plaques and nodules in 1987. Histopathologic studies revealed dermal infiltration with mature activated T cells (CD4+, CD25+, DR+) with nuclear convolutions and epidermatotropisim. High titers of specific human T lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-I antibodies were detected in the serum. Molecular analysis of DNA extracted from the skin tumor biopsy specimen showed a clonal integration of an HTLV-I provirus and a T-cell clonal population as demonstrated by T-cell receptor beta and gamma gene rearrangement studies. Neither HTLV-I provirus nor T-cell receptor rearrangements were detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells DNA despite the presence of rare adult T cell leukemia cells (less than 1%) and a small excess of DR-expressing cells, and detection of HTLV-I Pol and Px sequences by in vitro gene amplification. In this case only gene analysis of the skin lesions made possible an early diagnosis of a cutaneous adult T cell leukemia. This illustrates the need for such molecular studies to differentiate, in HTLV-I seropositive patients from endemic areas, a HTLV-I-induced T cell lymphoma from HTLV-I-nonrelated cutaneous T cell lymphomas.
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