GALLI STAMPINO, L, Pasqualini, A, Pozzato, Gabriele, Bonino, F, Filipponi, E, Mosca, M, Masciopinto, F, Abrignani, S, Uematsu, Y.
المصدر:
Digestive and liver disease : official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver. 35(11)
Background and aims. Hepatitis C virus infection is often associated with lymphoproliferative disorders such as essential mixed cryoglobulinemia and B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which show preferential expression of V H I family products. By analyzing immunoglobulin heavy chain usage, we addressed the question of whether or not clonal B-cell expansion occurrs in patients free of essential mixed cryoglobulinemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Patients and methods. Four hepatitis C virus-positive patients, all undergoing liver transplantation, were studied. Peripheral blood, intra-hepatic, and lymph node lymphocytes were used as a source of B cells. A patient with hepatocellular carcinoma and fresh blood from four healthy donors were used as negative controls. V H I family sequences were cloned and analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Results. Immunoglobulin heavy chain sequences from clonally expanded B lymphocytes were identified in three out of four hepatitis C virus-infected patients. The clonally expanded B lymphocyte populations showed a broad spectra of immunoglobulin heavy chain gene usage. Conclusions. HCV infection can induce B-cell expansion with larger clonal variation. The restricted V gene usage in hepatitis C virus-associated non-Hodgkin lymphoma suggests that there may be selection mechanisms to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma from non-malignant, clonally expanded B-cell populations in hepatitis C virus-infected patients.