Abstract
Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a neoplasm composed of follicle center B-cells, which generally has at least a partial follicular pattern. FL is classified into grades 1, 2 and 3 based on the number of centroblasts in neoplastic follicles. The proliferation and progression of neoplastic cells are known to be closely related to abnormalities in various positive and negative cell-cycle regulators. Skp2 positively regulates the G1-S transition by promoting degradation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27. Recent evidence has indicated an oncogenic role of Skp2 in not only carcinogenesis but also lymphomagenesis. In this study, we performed immunohistochemical analysis of the cell cycle-associated proteins, Skp2, p27, and Ki-67, in 70 patients with FL, to evaluate the correlation between FL grade and the expression levels of these proteins. In all 70 patients, Skp2 expression was inversely correlated with p27 and positively correlated with Ki-67 expression. P27 expression was inversely correlated with Ki-67 expression. Higher grade FL was associated with a higher expression of Skp2 and Ki-67, while p27 was significantly more prevalent in lower grade FL. It was suggested that Skp2 is a valuable marker to predict proliferation of the neoplastic cells in FL. Analysis of Skp2 levels may also be a useful and objective approach for grading FL.
