Publication Date:
2018-11-29
Description:
BACKGROUND A complex interaction between blasts and surrounding cells in the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) bone marrow (BM) microenvironment sustains blast proliferation and confers chemoresistance. T- and NK-cells have been shown to be dysfunctional in AML, which might be associated with immune evasion and poor prognosis. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of the immune contexture of the AML BM at diagnosis and study its interaction with clinicopathological variables. METHODS Diagnostic BM biopsies (n=69) were collected from AML patients treated in the Helsinki University Hospital during 2005-2017 and age and gender-matched controls (n=12) to construct tissue microarrays (TMA). Using 8-plex immunohistochemistry (mIHC) and computerized image analysis, we determined cell abundance and immunophenotypic states of millions of immune cells. Immunoprofiles were integrated with a total of 120 clinicopathological variables including cytogenetics and molecular genetics, ELN (European Leukemia Net) risk classification, disease burden parameters, and patient demographics. RESULTS Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the immunologic contexture defined by mIHC analysis grouped AML patients distinctly from control subjects (Fig 1a). By extracting significant differences (Mann-Whitney U test, q
Print ISSN:
0006-4971
Electronic ISSN:
1528-0020
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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