Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2026
Isolation of CD4+ T-cells and Analysis of Circulating T-follicular Helper (cTfh) Cell Subsets from Peripheral Blood Using 6-color Flow Cytometry
Published on: January 7, 2019
Distribution, function, and prognostic value of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in follicular lymphoma: a 3-D tissue-imaging
Camille Laurent1, Sabina Müller, Catherine Do
1INSERM U1043, Centre de Physiopathologie de Toulouse Purpan, Section Dynamique Moléculaire des Interactions Lymphocytaires, Toulouse, France.
Abstract:
CD8+ CTLs are thought to play a role in the control of follicular lymphoma (FL). Yet, the link between CTL tissue distribution, activation status, ability to kill FL cells in vivo, and disease progression is still elusive. Pretreatment lymph nodes from FL patients were analyzed by IHC (n = 80) or by 3-color confocal microscopy (n = 10). IHC revealed a rich infiltrate of CD8+ granzyme B+ (GrzB) cells in FL interfollicular spaces. Accordingly, confocal microscopy showed an increased number of CD3+CD8+GrzB+ CTLs and a brighter GrzB staining in individual CTL in FL samples compared with reactive lymph nodes. CTLs did not penetrate tumor nodules. In 3-dimensional (3-D) image reconstructions, CTLs were detected at the FL follicle border where they formed lytic synapse-like structures with FL B cells and with apoptotic cells, suggesting an in situ cytotoxic function. Finally, although GrzB expression in CTLs did not correlate with risk factors, high GrzB content correlated with prolonged progression free-survival (PFS) after rituximab-combined chemotherapy. Our results show the recruitment of armed CTLs with a tumor-controlling potential into FL lymph nodes and suggest that CTL-associated GrzB expression could influence PFS in FL patients having received rituximab-combined chemotherapy.
