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E.C. Vonderheid, R.D. Bigler, J.S. Hou, On the possible relationship between staphylococcal superantigens and increased Vβ5·1 usage in cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma, British Journal of Dermatology, Volume 152, Issue 4, 1 April 2005, Pages 825–826, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2133.2005.06524.x
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Conflicts of interest: none declared.
Sir, We read with interest the recent report of Linnemann and coworkers1 regarding their detailed study of cells isolated from skin lesions of a patient with plaque‐phase mycosis fungoides that expressed Vβ5·1. The interesting observation was that not only was the T‐cell receptor (TCR)‐γ sequenced malignant clone found to be Vβ5·1+, but also that the associated nonmalignant Vβ5·1+ cells were polyclonal and of heterogeneous origin. The authors suggest that staphylococcal superantigens could provide a mechanism for both the expanded TCR Vβ5·1+ malignant and the polyclonal nonmalignant T cells. A coexisting staphylococcal infection was diagnosed, but information about the production of superantigenic exotoxins by the isolate, if any, was not provided.
Our group recently completed a survey of Vβ expression on circulating neoplastic T cells obtained from patients with the leukaemic phase of cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma (CTCL) using a panel of anti‐Vβ antibodies.2 Of note, nine of 32 (28%) cases that were antibody positive were found to express Vβ5·1. Furthermore, review of the literature indicated that Vβ5·1 usage in other leukaemic CTCL cases was twice as frequent as that of other Vβ segments (about 10% overall), and that Vβ5·1 predominance in skin lesions of CTCL may be higher than generally appreciated (about 38%). Thus, the case studied by Linnemann et al.1 provides an additional example of the preferential expression of Vβ5·1 in CTCL.
