Terminal B cell development as seen in different human myelomas and related disorders
Burns, G.F.; Worman, C.P.; Roberts, B.E.; Raper, C.G.; Barker, C.R.; Cawley, J.C.
Clinical and Experimental Immunology 35(2): 180-189
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0009-9104 PMID: 312170 Document Number: 147905
Immunological surface marker analysis of the mature lymphoid and plasma cells of a range of human lymphoproliferative diseases showed that the surface immunoglobulin (sIg) phenotype of plasma cells depends upon the isotype being secreted. Using a sensitive rosette assay, the plasma cells of all IgG (8), IgA (6) and IgE (1) myelomas studied and of 1 of 2 cases of IgD myeloma were negative for all classes of sIg. The plasma cells from the other case of IgD myeloma expressed only sIgD, while a proportion of plasma cells from two cases of IgM myeloma and one of BJ myeloma had both sIgM and sIgD at the cell surface. The mature lymphoid and plasma cells from the 2 patients with mixed lymphoid/plasmacytoid proliferations of IgA type (2) carried sIgA alone, while the mature bone marrow cells from a case of Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia had only sIgM. In all the various types of immunoproliferative disease studied, a greater proportion of lymphoid cells than plasma cells possessed .gamma.Fc receptors, and plasma cells were negative for receptors for EAC and .mu.Fc, and lacked the Ia-like p29, 34 antigen. These results provide a scheme illustrating the terminal stages of B -rosette-forming cells and sIgM+ and sIgD+ normal B cells were depressed in most cases and that there was a corresponding increase in Fc+sIg- and/or null (Fc-sIg-) cells.