Bone marrow infiltration pattern in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia is related to immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable region mutation status and expression of 70-kd zeta-associated protein (ZAP-70).
Zeta-chain associated protein of 70kDa (ZAP-70) is the most promising surrogate marker for the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region (IgV(H)) mutation status in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL).Crespo et al. proposed the detection of ZAP-70 by flow cytometry.
Moreover, discordant ISO(+)TNK(-) cases had a IgV(H) gene mutation profile similar to that of concordantly positive cases and different from ZAP-70 concordantly negative B-CLL.
Here we demonstrate that some cases of B-CLL involved in lymph node carried mutated VH genes and showed intraclonal diversity like the tumor cells in the peripheral blood.