ABSTRACT
Malignant Sezary cells express the natural killer (NK) receptors KIR3DL2 (CD158k) and Nkp46 and may co-express activating killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) that may participate to neoplastic T-cell activation through the JNK pathway. Little is known regarding NK receptor expression in other cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. We studied the expression of KIR and natural cytotoxicity receptor (NCR) transcripts, and KIR3DL1/2 at the protein level, in 16 skin biopsies from 10 patients with transformed mycosis fungoides (tMF). Some KIR and NCR transcripts were found in all cases, with various repertoires. Two to nine different KIR receptors were expressed in a single biopsy. Among them, KIR3DL2 was the most frequent, with the highest level of expression in quantitative analyses and correlated with in situ protein expression, while phosphorylated JNK was never detected. Among NCR, NKp46 was expressed in all investigated cases. The role of KIR3DL2 and NKp46 in tMF oncogenesis remains to be studied.
Subject(s)
Mycosis Fungoides/metabolism , Natural Cytotoxicity Triggering Receptor 1/metabolism , Receptors, KIR2DL2/metabolism , Receptors, KIR3DL2/metabolism , Cell Transformation, Neoplastic , Humans , Skin/metabolismABSTRACT
Syphilis has been a re-emerging disease in the past few decades. As a consequence, the prevalence of congenital syphilis is expected to be on the rise. Maternal syphilis may be related to several pathologies, such as miscarriage, stillbirth, or congenital syphilis in the child. Infants that acquire syphilis in utero are frequently asymptomatic, and the organ damage caused by the infection may be apparent only years later. Syphilis is a curable disease, and most of its complications in the infant can be prevented by screening and treating the mother. Every newborn potentially infected should be treated with penicillin immediately starting on the day of birth.
