Phenotypic profiling of CD34+ cells by advanced flow cytometry improves diagnosis of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia

Haematologica. 2024 Feb 1;109(2):521-532. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2023.282805.

Abstract

Diagnostic criteria for juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) are currently well defined, however in some patients diagnosis still remains a challenge. Flow cytometry is a well established tool for diagnosis and follow-up of hematological malignancies, nevertheless it is not routinely used for JMML diagnosis. Herewith, we characterized the CD34+ hematopoietic precursor cells collected from 31 children with JMML using a combination of standardized EuroFlow antibody panels to assess the ability to discriminate JMML cells from normal/reactive bone marrow cell as controls (n=29) or from cells of children with other hematological diseases mimicking JMML (n=9). CD34+ precursors in JMML showed markedly reduced B-cell and erythroid-committed precursors compared to controls, whereas monocytic and CD7+ lymphoid precursors were significantly expanded. Moreover, aberrant immunophenotypes were consistently present in CD34+ precursors in JMML, while they were virtually absent in controls. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that combined assessment of the number of CD34+CD7+ lymphoid precursors and CD34+ aberrant precursors or erythroid precursors had a great potential in discriminating JMMLs versus controls. Importantly our scoring model allowed highly efficient discrimination of truly JMML versus patients with JMML-like diseases. In conclusion, we show for the first time that CD34+ precursors from JMML patients display a unique immunophenotypic profile which might contribute to a fast and accurate diagnosis of JMML worldwide by applying an easy to standardize single eight-color antibody combination.

MeSH terms

  • Antigens, CD34 / genetics
  • Child
  • Flow Cytometry
  • Humans
  • Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Juvenile* / diagnosis
  • Leukemia, Myelomonocytic, Juvenile* / genetics
  • Monocytes / pathology

Substances

  • Antigens, CD34

Grants and funding

Funding: This project was supported by Fondazione Alessandro Maria Zancan “GrandeAle ONLUS”, Fondazione M. Tettamanti De Marchi. It was also partially funded by Fondazione Regionale per la Ricerca Biomedica (FRRB, Regione Lombardia), project no. CP2_10/2018 (Plagencell); AIRC IG 2017 ref. id 20564 (to AB), AIRC 5x1000 ref. id 21147 (to AB and FL), AIRC Accelerator Award 2018 id 22791 (to AB and FL); Ministero Università e Ricerca, PRIN2017, project no. 2017WC8499 (to FL and AB). SM was supported by Acción Estratégica en Salud (AES) (grant no. PI21_01115) and the grant of CIBERONC of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Madrid, Spain and FONDOS FEDER (no. CB16/12/00400). MN and EM were supported by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, grant no. NU20J-07-00028.