Expression of GD3 disialoganglioside antigen on peripheral T-lymphocytes in patients with disseminated malignant melanoma

Abstract

Disialoganglioside antigens GD2 and GD3 are expressed on most melanoma cells. On melanoma surrounding T-cells in immunohistological sections, disialogangliosides can also be found, as well as in a small% of T-lymphocytes in peripheral blood from healthy persons. In order to find out if there is a difference in ganglioside expression on peripheral T-lymphocytes between melanoma patients and healthy persons, we examined the expression of CD3 as T-lymphocytic antigen and GD2 or GD3 antigens, respectively, by flow cytometry. We used peripheral mononuclear blood cells of 2 patients with advanced disseminated malignant melanoma and of 12 healthy control donors. For immunostaining, murine monoclonal antibodies Leu-4, 14G2a and MB3.6 were used, recognizing GD3, GD2 and GD3. GD2 expression was found on only a low proportion of T-lymphocytes in patients and healthy persons (pat.: mean = 1.2% ± 0.7%, co.: mean = 0.4% ± 0.4%). Disialoganglioside antigen GD3, however, could be demonstrated on an average of 8.4% ± 4.6% of patients' and on 4.0% ± 2.1% of healthy persons' T-cells. There is a statistically significant difference (P<0.01) between the data of patients' and control group. We conclude that there is a correlation between advanced malignant melanoma and expression of GD3 antigen on patients' peripheral T-lymphocytes. The immunological relevance of our findings is discussed.