Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Immunochemical demonstration of J chain: a marker of B-cell malignancy.
  1. P Isaacson

    Abstract

    Many B-cell lymphomas can be shown to contain cytoplasmic immunoglobulin which is characteristically monotypic with respect to light chains. In Hodgkin's disease, however, the Reed-Sternberg cells have been shown to contain both immunoglobulin light chains. This finding, which is also present in some other lymphomas, has been used as evidence both for and against a B-cell derivation of these cells. J chain is present in normal immunoblasts irrespective of the class of immunoglobulin being synthesised and, thus, should be present in tumour cells that synthesise cytoplasmic immunoglobulin. In a series of lymphomas, in which the cells could be shown to contain immunoglobulin, J chain was present only in those tumours exhibiting a monotypic light chain staining pattern. J chain was not present in Reed-Sternberg cells and other cells staining polytypically for light chains. Demonstration of J chain is thus a useful marker for B-cell lymphomas; its absence in Reed-Sternberg cells indicates that the immunoglobulin in these cells is not synthesised by them and cannot be used as evidence for their derivation from B-cells.

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.