TY  - JOUR
A1  - Almanzar, Giovanni
A1  - Klein, Matthias
A1  - Schmalzing, Marc
A1  - Hilligardt, Deborah
A1  - El Hajj, Nady
A1  - Kneitz, Hermann
A1  - Wild, Vanessa
A1  - Rosenwald, Andreas
A1  - Benoit, Sandrine
A1  - Hamm, Henning
A1  - Tony, Hans-Peter
A1  - Haaf, Thomas
A1  - Goebeler, Matthias
A1  - Prelog, Martina
T1  - Disease Manifestation and Inflammatory Activity as Modulators of Th17/Treg Balance and RORC/FoxP3 Methylation in Systemic Sclerosis
JF  - International Archives of Allergy and Immunology
N2  - Background: There is much evidence that T cells are strongly involved in the pathogenesis of localized and systemic forms of scleroderma (SSc). A dysbalance between FoxP3+ regulatory CD4+ T cells (Tregs) and inflammatory T-helper (Th) 17 cells has been suggested. Methods: The study aimed (1) to investigate the phenotypical and functional characteristics of Th17 and Tregs in SSc patients depending on disease manifestation (limited vs. diffuse cutaneous SSc, dcSSc) and activity, and (2) the transcriptional level and methylation status of Th17- and Treg-specific transcription factors. Results: There was a concurrent accumulation of circulating peripheral IL-17-producing CCR6+ Th cells and FoxP3+ Tregs in patients with dcSSc. At the transcriptional level, Th17- and Treg-associated transcription factors were elevated in SSc. A strong association with high circulating Th17 and Tregs was seen with early, active, and severe disease presentation. However, a diminished suppressive function on autologous lymphocytes was found in SSc-derived Tregs. Significant relative hypermethylation was seen at the gene level for RORC1 and RORC2 in SSc, particularly in patients with high inflammatory activity. Conclusions: Besides the high transcriptional activity of T cells, attributed to Treg or Th17 phenotype, in active SSc disease, Tregs may be insufficient to produce high amounts of IL-10 or to control proliferative activity of effector T cells in SSc. Our results suggest a high plasticity of Tregs strongly associated with the Th17 phenotype. Future directions may focus on enhancing Treg functions and stabilization of the Treg phenotype.
KW  - methylation
KW  - systemic sclerosis
KW  - suppression
KW  - Tregs
KW  - Th17
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196577
SN  - 1018-2438
SN  - 1423-0097
N1  - This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
VL  - 171
IS  - 2
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wobser, Marion
A1  - Schummer, Patrick
A1  - Appenzeller, Silke
A1  - Kneitz, Hermann
A1  - Roth, Sabine
A1  - Goebeler, Matthias
A1  - Geissinger, Eva
A1  - Rosenwald, Andreas
A1  - Maurus, Katja
T1  - Panel sequencing of primary cutaneous B-cell lymphoma
JF  - Cancers
N2  - Background: Primary cutaneous follicular B-cell lymphoma (PCFBCL) represents an indolent subtype of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, being clinically characterized by slowly growing tumors of the skin and common cutaneous relapses, while only exhibiting a low propensity for systemic dissemination or fatal outcome. Up to now, only few studies have investigated underlying molecular alterations of PCFBCL with respect to somatic mutations. Objectives: Our aim was to gain deeper insight into the pathogenesis of PCFBCL and to delineate discriminatory molecular features of this lymphoma subtype. Methods: We performed hybridization-based panel sequencing of 40 lymphoma-associated genes of 10 cases of well-characterized PCFBCL. In addition, we included two further ambiguous cases of atypical B-cell-rich lymphoid infiltrate/B-cell lymphoma of the skin for which definite subtype attribution had not been possible by routine investigations. Results: In 10 out of 12 analyzed cases, we identified genetic alterations within 15 of the selected 40 target genes. The most frequently detected alterations in PCFBCL affected the TNFRSF14, CREBBP, STAT6 and TP53 genes. Our analysis unrevealed novel mutations of the BCL2 gene in PCFBCL. All patients exhibited an indolent clinical course. Both the included arbitrary cases of atypical B-cell-rich cutaneous infiltrates showed somatic mutations within the FAS gene. As these mutations have previously been designated as subtype-specific recurrent alterations in primary cutaneous marginal zone lymphoma (PCMZL), we finally favored the diagnosis of PCMZL in these two cases based on these molecular findings. Conclusions: To conclude, our molecular data support that PCFBCL shows distinct somatic mutations which may aid to differentiate PCFBCL from pseudo-lymphoma as well as from other indolent and aggressive cutaneous B-cell lymphomas. While the detected genetic alterations of PCFBCL did not turn out to harbor any prognostic value in our cohort, our molecular data may add adjunctive discriminatory features for diagnostic purposes on a molecular level.
KW  - B-cell lymphoma
KW  - primary cutaneous follicular B-cell lymphoma
KW  - targeted sequencing
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-290330
SN  - 2072-6694
VL  - 14
IS  - 21
ER  -