Clinico-pathological characteristics of p63 expression in B-cell lymphoma

A member of the family of p53-related genes, p63 plays a role in regulating epithelial proliferation and differentiation programs, but the pathological and clinical meaning of p63 in B-cell lymphoma has not been elucidated. We investigated the expression pattern of p63 in B-cell malignancies, and evaluated the correlation between the expression of p63 and other germinal center markers. Ninety-eight B-cell lymphomas (28 FCL, 5 MCL, and 65 DLBCL) were analyzed by immunohistochemical examination for p63, bcl-6, CD10 and MUM-1 proteins, and for rearrangement of bcl-2/IgH. Expression of p63 was observed in the nuclei of tumor cells obtained from 15 of 28 (54%) FCL, 22 of 65 (34%) DLBCL, but none of 5 MCL. In DLBCL, the expression of p63 and bcl-6 showed a significant correlation (P < 0.02), but no correlation was observed between p63 and expression of CD10, MUM-1, or bcl-2/IgH rearrangement. RT-PCR revealed that TAp63 alpha-type transcripts, a possible negative regulator of transcriptional activation of p21 promoter, were major transcripts in B-cell lymphoma tissues. As for prognostic significance, only patients in the p63 positive group of FCL died, and in the non-germinal center group, the p63 positive cases appeared to have inferior overall survival than other groups in DLBCL. Our preliminary results suggested that p63 expression is a disadvantageous factor for prognosis in this subgroup of B-cell lymphomas.