Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Köln Bonn, University at Cologne, Kerpener Strasse 62, 50937 Cologne, Germany.
Leuk Res. 2011 Oct;35(10):1360-6. doi: 10.1016/j.leukres.2011.04.006. Epub 2011 Apr 30.
Flow cytometry is commonly used to establish the diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). A defined combination of antibodies discriminates between normal B cells and CLL cells (coexpression of CD5, CD19, and CD23). The receptor tyrosine-like orphan receptor one (ROR1) is an embryonic glycoprotein involved in several developmental processes. It was shown to be highly and specifically expressed on circulating B lymphoma cells, but not on normal B cells. Here, we examined the potential of ROR1 as a diagnostic marker in initial and follow-up diagnostics of patients with CLL. 105 untreated and 72 treated patients, as well as healthy volunteers were examined using flow cytometry assays. Furthermore, we examined 10 patients with various B cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (B-NHL). ROR1 was detected using a directly labeled antibody. We detected uniformly high ROR1 expression levels in all CLL samples. In marked contrast, only low or absent ROR1 expression levels were found on B cells from healthy donors. ROR1 expression in CLL patients was not influenced by various treatments. Taken together, ROR1 may be used as a diagnostic marker for CLL. As it is the only antigen which can exclusively be detected on neoplastic B cells it may greatly increase both, specificity as well as sensitivity, in lymphoma diagnostics.
流式细胞术常用于诊断慢性淋巴细胞白血病（CLL）。一组特定的抗体可以区分正常 B 细胞和 CLL 细胞（共表达 CD5、CD19 和 CD23）。受体酪氨酸样孤儿受体 1（ROR1）是一种参与多种发育过程的胚胎糖蛋白。研究表明，它在循环 B 淋巴瘤细胞上高度特异性表达，但在正常 B 细胞上不表达。在这里，我们研究了 ROR1 作为 CLL 患者初始和随访诊断的潜在诊断标志物。使用流式细胞术检测了 105 例未经治疗和 72 例经治疗的患者以及健康志愿者。此外，我们还检测了 10 例患有各种 B 细胞非霍奇金淋巴瘤（B-NHL）的患者。使用直接标记的抗体检测 ROR1。我们在所有 CLL 样本中均检测到均匀高的 ROR1 表达水平。相比之下，仅在健康供体的 B 细胞上检测到低水平或无 ROR1 表达。CLL 患者的 ROR1 表达不受各种治疗的影响。综上所述，ROR1 可作为 CLL 的诊断标志物。由于它是唯一可以在肿瘤 B 细胞上特异性检测到的抗原，因此它可以极大地提高淋巴瘤诊断的特异性和敏感性。
