Distribution of lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with polycythemia vera

Hum Immunol. 2015 Jun;76(6):414-6. doi: 10.1016/j.humimm.2015.03.021. Epub 2015 Apr 6.

Abstract

Polycythemia vera (PV) is a disease with slow development. Nonetheless, the immune response is unable to eliminate the uncontrolled proliferating hematopoietic cells, leading to treatment of patient by phlebotomy and/or cytotoxic drugs. In addition, a higher incidence of cancers is observed in PV patients, independently of treatment. These observations argue for an impaired immune response in PV. In order to investigate this hypothesis, we studied the distribution of lymphocyte subpopulations in PV, and showed a significant decrease in T, TCR γ/δ and B cells together with an increase in natural killer (NK) cells.

Keywords: Lymphocytes; Natural killer cells; Polycythemia vera.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • B-Lymphocyte Subsets / immunology
  • B-Lymphocyte Subsets / pathology*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Female
  • Gene Expression
  • Humans
  • Immunophenotyping
  • Janus Kinase 2 / genetics
  • Janus Kinase 2 / immunology
  • Killer Cells, Natural / immunology
  • Killer Cells, Natural / pathology*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Mutation
  • Polycythemia Vera / genetics
  • Polycythemia Vera / immunology
  • Polycythemia Vera / pathology*
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta / genetics
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta / immunology
  • T-Lymphocyte Subsets / immunology
  • T-Lymphocyte Subsets / pathology*

Substances

  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell, gamma-delta
  • JAK2 protein, human
  • Janus Kinase 2