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Profile of CD103 expression in T-cell neoplasms: immunoreactivity is not restricted to enteropathy-associated T-cell
Elizabeth A Morgan1, German A Pihan, Jonathan W Said
1*Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School †Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston §Department of Pathology, UMass Memorial Medical Center and University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA ‡Department of Pathology, UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA.
Intestinal intraepithelial T lymphocytes express the α E subunit of integrin αEβ7, which is detected by antibodies to CD103. Accordingly, within T-cell neoplasms, CD103 reactivity has most frequently been reported in enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphomas, which are postulated to arise from intestinal intraepithelial T lymphocytes. However, prior studies of CD103 expression in T-cell neoplasms have been limited by the requirement for fresh or frozen tissue, given the historic lack of an antibody to CD103 for use in paraffin-embedded sections. Thus, a thorough assessment of CD103 expression in a broad spectrum of T-cell neoplasms as categorized by the current classification system has not yet been performed. This study uses a newly described antibody to define the profile of CD103 immunoreactivity in paraffin sections of a wide variety of T-cell neoplasms (184 cases). Overall, 22 T-cell neoplasms (12%) were CD103 positive, including 7 of 15 gastrointestinal lymphomas (3.8% of total cases; 46% of gastrointestinal cases). In intestinal cases, CD103 positivity did not correlate with morphology, presence or absence of enteropathy, or immunohistochemical profile. A history of celiac disease was not documented in any case. Frequent but inconsistent reactivity was also noted for adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma with 4 of 10 cases (40%) positive. In the remaining T-cell neoplasms representing most entities within the current World Health Organization classification, CD103 reactivity was sporadically observed in 11 of 159 cases (6.9%). CD103 positivity is an unusual feature in T-cell neoplasms and tends to occur in gastrointestinal lymphomas and adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma but is not a consistent characteristic of these neoplasms.
Intestinal intraepithelial T lymphocytes express the α E subunit of integrin αEβ7, which is detected by antibodies to CD103. Accordingly, within T-cell neoplasms, CD103 reactivity has most frequently been reported in enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphomas, which are postulated to arise from intestinal intraepithelial T lymphocytes. However, prior studies of CD103 expression in T-cell neoplasms have been limited by the requirement for fresh or frozen tissue, given the historic lack of an antibody to CD103 for use in paraffin-embedded sections. Thus, a thorough assessment of CD103 expression in a broad spectrum of T-cell neoplasms as categorized by the current classification system has not yet been performed. This study uses a newly described antibody to define the profile of CD103 immunoreactivity in paraffin sections of a wide variety of T-cell neoplasms (184 cases). Overall, 22 T-cell neoplasms (12%) were CD103 positive, including 7 of 15 gastrointestinal lymphomas (3.8% of total cases; 46% of gastrointestinal cases). In intestinal cases, CD103 positivity did not correlate with morphology, presence or absence of enteropathy, or immunohistochemical profile. A history of celiac disease was not documented in any case. Frequent but inconsistent reactivity was also noted for adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma with 4 of 10 cases (40%) positive. In the remaining T-cell neoplasms representing most entities within the current World Health Organization classification, CD103 reactivity was sporadically observed in 11 of 159 cases (6.9%). CD103 positivity is an unusual feature in T-cell neoplasms and tends to occur in gastrointestinal lymphomas and adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma but is not a consistent characteristic of these neoplasms.
