CD87 as a Marker for Terminal Granulocytic Maturation: Assessment of Its Expression during Granulopoiesis

Abstract

Background: Understanding the normal surface maturation pattern of granulocytes is essential for the recognition of abnormal patterns, which in turn may be of diagnostic or pathogenetic significance in disorders such as myelodysplastic syndromes and inherited bone marrow failure disorders. CD87 plays a role in cellular interaction, call migration, and inflammatory response. Surface expression of this antigen has not been adequately studied on bone marrow granulocytes, and the small number of previous studies has provided conflicting data. Methods: Bone marrow aspirates from 11 control subjects were studied by flow cytometry and a lysed whole blood technique to compare surface expression of CD87 on marrow granulocytes with those of CD11b, CD16, CD35, and CD10, which are expressed at the myelocyte, metamyelocyte, band, and segmented stage of neutrophilic development, respectively. Four sorting experiments of CD87+ granulocytes were also performed. Results: Our study showed no statistical difference between surface expression of CD35 and CD87 (P > 0.3), whereas significant differences existed between CD87 and the other antibodies (P < 0.004). Sorting experiments showed that more than 80% of CD87 + cells were bands and segmented neutrophils. Dual staining for CD87 and CD35 showed that most CD87+ granulocytes coexpress CD35. Conclusions: CD87 is expressed on granulocytes at the band and segmented neutrophil stage of development and can be used to study normal and abnormal granulopoiesis. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.