Acid alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase activity in human neoplastic lymphoid cells. Usefulness as a T-cell marker.

Previous studies have shown that a distinctive pattern of acid alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) activity (focal reaction product) characterizes normal human peripheral blood and tissue T lymphocytes but is absent from thymocytes and certain mitogen-stimulated T-cell blasts. In the present study mononuclear cell suspensions prepared from the peripheral blood and tissue specimens of 35 patients with lymphoid malignancies were simultaneously analyzed for surface immunoglobulin, sheep erythrocyte rosette formation, Ia antigens, and ANAE activity. The neoplastic cells from 16 patients with Ia+ SIg+ E- (B cell) malignancies, 4 patients with Ia+ SIg- E- (non-B, non-T) acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and 3 patients with Ia- SIg- E- (null cell) malignancies failed to exhibit ANAE activity. The neoplastic cells from 5 patients with Ia- SIg- E+ (T cell-derived) malignancies, including three cutaneous lymphomas, displayed characteristic T-pattern positivity, and in each case the percentage of E+ and ANAE+ cells was comparable. The neoplastic cells from 4 patients with Ia- SIg- E+ (T cell-derived) acute lymphoblastic leukemia were ANAE-. The expression of ANAE activity in T cell-derived malignancies may parallel its expression in the stages of normal T-cell differentiation and may prove to be a useful marker with which to sort out T-cell phenotypes.