Chronic natural killer cell lymphocytosis
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Updated: Aug 8, 2026
A Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Assay to Identify Novel NFAT2 Target Genes in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Published on: December 4, 2018
1Division of Hematology and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
Abstract:
Chronic proliferations of natural killer (NK) cells (CD3- CD16+) are identified initially by detecting large granular lymphocyte (LGL) excess in a peripheral blood smear and subsequent lymphocyte immunophenotyping by flow cytometry. A related disease, T-LGL leukemia, has an indolent clinical course with chronic neutropenia and a close association with rheumatoid arthritis. Herein are described the clinical presentation and long-term clinical course of patients with chronic NK cell lymphocytosis (CNKL). The majority of the 14 patients followed up for a median of 4 years presented with severe cytopenias or vasculitic syndromes that were responsive to immunosuppressive therapy. Other manifestations included fever and arthralgias. In general, the disease was nonprogressive and had a course similar to that of T-LGL leukemia.
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