Abstract.
Comparative immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies were performed on five nasal natural killer (NK) cell lymphoma cases, two intestinal T-cell lymphoma cases, and eight anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) cases to clarify morphological differences in cytotoxic granules among these cytotoxic lymphomas. Nasal NK-cell lymphomas and intestinal T-cell lymphomas had fine azurophilic granules and displayed dot-like immunostaining of granzyme B- and T-cell intracellular antigen 1 (TIA-1), predominantly in the central area of the cytoplasm. Ultrastructurally, these NK-cell lymphomas and intestinal T-cell lymphomas had two types of cytotoxic granules, type-I granules (dense core granules) and type-II granules (multivesicular bodies), which have been demonstrated in normal large granular lymphocytes in peripheral blood. However, ALCLs did not have azurophilic granules, and only type-II cytotoxic granules were found ultrastructurally, even though they showed similar dot-like immunostained patterns of granzyme B and TIA-1, as seen in NK-cell lymphomas and intestinal T-cell lymphomas. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed that TIA-1 was primarily located at the periphery of the cytoplasmic granules in the NK-cell lymphoma and ALCL cases. These findings suggest that malignant lymphomas with a cytotoxic phenotype can be divided into two types, (azurophilic granule)+, (type-I granule)+, (type-II granule)+ lymphomas and (azurophilic granule)–, (type-I granule)–, (type-II granule)+ lymphomas.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Electronic Publication
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sadahira, Y., Akisada, K., Sugihara, T. et al. Comparative ultrastructural study of cytotoxic granules in nasal natural killer cell lymphoma, intestinal T-cell lymphoma, and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Virchows Arch 438, 280–288 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004280000353
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004280000353