Proliferation kinetics of Sezary cells
JD Schwarzmeier, E Paietta, T Radaszkiewicz, K Konrad and L Marosi
The proliferation kinetics of neoplastic T cells arising in Sezary syndrome
(Sezary cells) are still poorly understood. Kinetic studies with
3H-thymidine as a DNA precursor revealed a low incorporation rate of the
nucleotide into Sezary cells obtained from the peripheral blood versus
Sezary cells from the skin. Using the double-label autoradiography we
determined the duration of single cell cycle phases of blood and cutaneous
Sezary cells. The results indicate the almost complete lack of
proliferative activity in the blood but a considerable portion of
proliferatively active Sezary cells in skin infiltrates. The removal of a
large mass of quiescent blood cells by leukapheresis did not affect the
proliferative state of the residual peripheral cell population implying
that the procedure did not induce the migration of proliferating skin cells
towards the blood. Terminally, the disease underwent transition into
immunoblastic lymphoma. At this time, the kinetic behavior of the
peripheral immunoblasts showed great similarity to that of cutaneous Sezary
cells. The findings point towards a common extravascular production site of
Sezary cells and immunoblasts probably located in the lymphatic tissue.
Volume 57,
Issue 6,
pp. 1049-1054,
06/01/1981
Copyright © 1981 by The American Society of Hematology
