CD56 expression in normal immature granulocytes after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Bone marrow mononuclear cells from 93 patients with hematological malignancies after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) were analyzed using flow cytometry (FCM). The disease was acute myeloblastic leukemia (50 patients), acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and others. Conditioning was myeloablative (80 patients) or reduced intensity. The stem cell source was bone marrow (75 patients), peripheral blood stem cells, or cord blood. After AHSCT, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor was given to all patients. All patients showed engraftment of the donor cells. FCM was conducted on a median of 22 days after AHSCT. The gate was set around a granulocytic region consisting of immature granulocytes. The positivity rates of CD13, CD14, CD15, CD33, CD34, CD56, and HLA-DR in the cells were 59.9 ± 27.4%, 5.8 ± 8.8%, 98.3 ± 1.9%, 92.3 ± 12.4%, 2.6 ± 5.8%, 24.3 ± 16.7%, and 9.1 ± 6.6%, respectively. The greatest value of CD56 positivity was 73.1%. On the basis of CD56 expression, cases of more than 24% CD56 positivity were assigned to the CD56-high group (39 patients), while the rest were assigned to the CD56-low/negative group. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of disease status, sex, donor, hematopoietic stem cells, days of FCM analysis, or peripheral blood cell counts around the days of performing FCM. These results indicate that CD56 can be expressed in normal immature granulocytes at a variety of expression levels in regenerative bone marrow. Attention should be paid when evaluating aberrant antigen expression of CD56 in granulocytes.