Abstract
Background & Aims: To rapidly detect monoclonality in mature T-cell malignancies, several studies focused on the mutually exclusive selection of T cell receptor β-chain constant region 1 (TRBC1) and TRBC2 detected by flow cytometric analysis. Whether the currently reported gating method with 8-10 antibodies is superior to the simple gating method with fewer antibodies has not been investigated.
Methods: TRBC1 and TRBC2 were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM) using four antibodies in addition to anti-TRBC1 antibody (JOVI-1). Frozen cells from 26 T-cell malignancies and 63 non-T-cell malignancies were included in this study.
Results: In 63 non-T-cell malignancies, the mean TRBC1 expression ratio was 37.7% in CD4＋ T cells and 31.7% in CD8＋ T cells, both of which followed a Gaussian distribution. In T-cell malignancy, the distribution of TRBC1 expression was skewed. Based on the average±standard deviation (SD) of T cells in non-T-cell malignancy, 23 of 26 cases (88.5%) were suggested to be monoclonal (either CD4＋, CD8＋, or double-negative T cells). Three cases (2 PTCL-NOS, 1 AITL) were not clonal.
Conclusions: Simple FCM analysis using five antibodies was enough to detect monoclonality in mature T-cell malignancies in routine work in the clinic.
