|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
AP Sappino, W Seelentag, MF Pelte, P Alberto and P Vassalli
Division of Oncology/Hematology, Hopital Cantonal Universitaire, Geneva,
Switzerland.
We investigated the mRNA content for tumor necrosis factor (TNF)/cachectin
and lymphotoxin (LT) in tumoral tissues of a prospective series of 35
non-Hodgkin's (NHL) and 23 Hodgkin's (HL) lymphomas, to assess their
postulated contribution to systemic symptoms. Total RNAs were extracted
from diagnostic tissue specimens and submitted to Northern blot analysis,
using specific TNF and LT cRNA probes. High amounts of TNF mRNA were found
exclusively in NHL (12/35). The majority (9/12) of these were low grade
B-cell NHL, which contained a uniform population of malignant cells. In
contrast, abundant LT mRNA production was detected in most HL (21/23) and
in 19 of 35 NHL. The highest LT mRNA levels were observed in high grade NHL
and in lymphocytic predominant subtypes of HL specimens. A significant
correlation was found between TNF/cachectin and LT gene expression in NHL
and the presence of constitutional symptoms. The biologic and prognostic
implications of these preliminary findings are presently unknown, but they
demonstrate that lymphoma tissues sharing common histologic features are
highly heterogeneous in their ability to synthesize cytokines susceptible
to playing a role in the growth control of malignant cells. These results
suggest that the evaluation of TNF/cachectin and LT production in lymphomas
may help to elucidate the mechanisms of tumoral fever and cachexia.
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| Copyright © 1990 by American Society of Hematology Online ISSN: 1528-0020 | |||||||||
