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Updated: May 6, 2026

Isolating Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and CD4+ T cells from Sézary Syndrome Patients for Transcriptomic Profiling
Published on: October 14, 2021
TSPAN33 is a novel marker of activated and malignant B cells
Van Phi Luu1, Peter Hevezi, Felipe Vences-Catalan
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA; Institute for Immunology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
Abstract:
We have identified Tspan33 as a gene encoding a transmembrane protein exhibiting a restricted expression pattern including expression in activated B cells. TSPAN33 is a member of the tetraspanin family. TSPAN33 is not expressed in resting B cells, but is strongly induced in primary human B cells following activation. Human 2E2 cells, a Burkitt's lymphoma-derived B cell model of activation and differentiation, also upregulate TSPAN33 upon activation. TSPAN33 is expressed in several lymphomas including Hodgkin's and Diffuse large B cell lymphoma. TSPAN33 is also expressed in some autoimmune diseases where B cells participate in the pathology, including rheumatoid arthritis patients, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and in spleen B cells from MRL/Fas(lpr/lpr) mice (a mouse model of SLE). We conclude that TSPAN33 may be used as a diagnostic biomarker or as a target for therapeutic antibodies for treatment of certain B cell lymphomas or autoimmune diseases.

