Functional interleukin-2 receptors are expressed on natural killer-like
leukemic cells from a dog with cutaneous lymphoma
SC Helfand, JF Modiano, PF Moore, SA Soergel, PS MacWilliams, RD Dubielzig, JA Hank, EW Gelfand and PM Sondel
School of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University
of Wisconsin-Madison 53706, USA.
We identified a dog with large granular lymphocytic leukemia and cutaneous
lymphoma that exhibited constitutive expression of interleukin-2 (IL-2)
receptors by the leukemic peripheral blood lymphocytes. The leukemic cells
phenotypically resembled natural killer (NK) cells, and their surface IL-2
receptors were functional, as determined by the capacity to bind human
recombinant IL-2 with high- affinity resulting in the transduction of
proliferation signals and in the development of lymphokine-activated killer
cell activity. These cells produced IL-2 spontaneously, and they may have
maintained their proliferative state through an IL-2-dependent autocrine
growth pathway. Our results indicate that neoplastic lymphocytes of
syndromes that involve circulating leukemic cells with dermotropism can
originate from NK-like cells. Additionally, the data also suggest that
proliferative conditions such as these may be the result of the aberrant
production of IL-2. Further, this case illustrates the potential for the
use of hematopoietic malignancies in the dog as a suitable animal model for
immune targeting of IL-2 receptors as a novel treatment approach for
similar malignancies of human beings.
Volume 86,
Issue 2,
pp. 636-645,
07/15/1995
Copyright © 1995 by The American Society of Hematology
