Altered neutrophil immunophenotypes in childhood B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Abstract

// Elen Oliveira 1, 2 , Thiago S. Bacelar 2 , Juana Ciudad 3 , Maria Cecília M. Ribeiro 4 , Daniela R.N. Garcia 1, 5 , Lukasz Sedek 6 , Simone F. Maia 7 , Daniel B. Aranha 1 , Indyara C. Machado 8 , Arissa Ikeda 9 , Bianca F. Baglioli 10 , Nathalia Lopez-Duarte 2 , Lisandra A. C. Teixeira 1, 2 , Tomasz Szczepanski 6 , Maria Luiza M. Silva 5 , Marcelo G.P. Land 1, 2 , Alberto Orfao 3, * , Elaine S. Costa 1, 2, * 1 Clinical Medicine Postgraduate Program, College of Medicine, Rio de Janeiro Federal University (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2 Cytometry Service, Institute of Pediatrics and Puericulture Martagão Gesteira (IPPMG), UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 3 Departament of Medicine and Cytometry Service, Cancer Research Center (IBMCC, USAL-CSIC), Institute for Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), University of Salamanca (USAL), Salamanca, Spain 4 Cytogenetics Service, IPPMG-UFRJ and Polo Xerém-UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 5 Cytogenetics Department, Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit and Oncology Post Graduation Program, National Cancer Institute (INCa), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 6 Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Medical University of Silesia, Zabrze, Poland 7 Service of Pediatric Hematology, Federal Lagoa Hospital (HFL), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 8 Service of Pediatric Hematology, São José do Avaí Hospital (HSJA), Itaperuna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 9 Service of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Servidores do Estado Federal Hospital (HSE), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 10 Service of Pediatric Hematology, Children’s Cancer Hospital of Barretos, Barretos, São Paulo, Brazil * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Elaine S. Costa, e-mail: elainesc.ufrj@gmail.com Alberto Orfao, e-mail: orfao@usal.es Keywords: B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia, residual hematopoiesis, altered neutrophil immunophenotype, multiparameter flow cytometry, childhood Received: December 22, 2015      Accepted: March 02, 2016      Published: March 25, 2016 ABSTRACT An increasing number of evidences suggest a genetic predisposition in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that might favor the occurrence of the driver genetic alterations. Such genetic background might also translate into phenotypic alterations of residual hematopoietic cells. Whether such phenotypic alterations are present in bone marrow (BM) cells from childhood B-cell precursor (BCP)-ALL remains to be investigated. Here we analyzed the immunophenotypic profile of BM and peripheral blood (PB) maturing/matured neutrophils from 118 children with BCP-ALL and their relationship with the features of the disease. Our results showed altered neutrophil phenotypes in most (77%) BCP-ALL cases. The most frequently altered marker was CD10 (53%), followed by CD33 (34%), CD13 (15%), CD15/CD65 (10%) and CD123 (7%). Of note, patients with altered neutrophil phenotypes had younger age ( p = 0.03) and lower percentages of BM maturing neutrophils ( p = 0.004) together with greater BM lymphocyte ( p = 0.04), and mature B-cell ( p = 0.03) counts. No significant association was found between an altered neutrophil phenotype and other disease features. These findings point out the potential existence of an altered residual hematopoiesis in most childhood BCP-ALL cases.