OBJECTIVES B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-LBL) arising in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is exceedingly rare and poorly characterized. METHODS We describe four patients with CLL and concurrent or subsequent B-LBL diagnosed by morphologic, immunophenotypic, cytogenetic, and molecular analysis and reviewed the literature. RESULTS In three patients, B-LBL followed CLL by 5 to 15...

Isolation of microglia from CNS tissue is a powerful investigative tool used to study microglial biology ex vivo. The present method details a procedure for isolation of microglia from neonatal murine cortices by mechanical agitation with a rotary shaker. This microglia isolation method yields highly pure cortical microglia that exhibit morphological and functional characteristics indicative of...

Cutaneous lymphomas comprise a heterogeneous group of lymphoproliferative disorders with skin involvement and are classified as a subgroup of non-Hodgkin lymphomas. From 1981 to 2007, 100 children with non-Hodgkin lymphomas were admitted to the Hematology Unit of the Federal University of Minas Gerais Teaching Hospital. In nine of these children, the skin was involved at the onset of the diseas...

Dendritic cells (DCs) can regulate all elements of the immune system, and therefore are an ideal target for vaccination. During the last two decades, as a result of extensive research, DCs became the primary target of antitumor vaccination as well. A critical issue of antitumor vaccination is the phenotype of the dendritic cell used. It has been recently shown that several nuclear hormone recep...

Seven adult patients with untreated acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) who manifested 5% to 40% myeloperoxidase (MPO)-positive blasts by electron microscopy (EM) are reported. Six patients had an L2 morphology, and one had an L1 morphology by the French-American-British (FAB) classification. The immunophenotype was T cell in four patients. Molecular analysis showed rearrangement of the immunoglob...

The primary and metastatic gastrointestinal synovial sarcoma is rare with a wide differential diagnosis. It usually expresses cytokeratins EMA, BCL2 with an occasional CD99, and S100 positivity but not desmin. We present a case of metastatic synovial sarcoma with unusual immunophenotype causing diagnostic challenges. The tumor cells showed focal cytokeratin, EMA, and, unexpectedly, desmin posit...