Unusual nuclear form hairy cells in hairy cell leukemia discovered using a lymphocyte-binding anti-CD antibody microarray.

Abstract

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder constituting about 2% from all leukemia cases and characterized by typical “hairy” morphology of tumor lymphocytes. We describe an HCL case with atypical nuclear shapes (lymphocytes with clover-leaf-like, horse-shoe-like, ring-shaped nuclei and binuclear cells were present). Morphology and immunophenotype of circulating leukemic cells were studied using a cell-binding microarray - a transparent plastic slide with immobilized monoclonal antibodies against surface antigens of lymphocytes. The cell-binding microarray with immobilized anti-CD11c, anti-CD103 and anti-CD123 permits to study a lymphocyte population enriched with hairy cells. Hairy cells with atypical nuclei constituted 3% of all lymphocytes and 15% of all hairy cells. This unusual hairy cell morphology is the first described in Russia and was found in one out of 85 HCL cases in our practice.