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In-situ-topoproteome analysis of cutaneous lymphomas: Perspectives of assistance for dermatohistologic diagnostics by Multi Epitope Ligand Cartography (MELC).

Bonnekoh B, Pommer AJ, Böckelmann R, Philipsen L, Hofmeister H, Gollnick H

Clinic for Dermatology and Venereology, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany.

Background: Immunophenotyping is essential for diagnostics of cutaneous lymphomas. In this regard we present a skin tissue-adapted application platform of MELC technology. Patients and Methods: This topoproteome analysis allows the subcellular colo-calization of at least n = 100 epitopes in situ. For this purpose the specimen is processed by a Toponome Imaging Cycler((R)) for a n-fold repetition of the following cycle: 1) staining with a fluorophore-labeld antibody, 2) fluorescence-imaging, and 3) photobleaching. Overlay and binarization of fluorescence images lead to combinatorial molecular phenotypes (CMP), which relate to a pixel or microtopographic unit (450 x 450 nm(2), 20x objective). Skin biopsies were derived from patients with mycosis fungoides (patch/plaque lesions), psoriasis, atopic eczema and from healthy skin donors. Results: In orientation to the WHO-EORTC-classification of cutaneous lym-phomas a MELC-library of 23 markers was established. According to an inaugurative detailed procedure the CMP frequency was determined in a normalization to 100 mum horizontal skin width. By a TopoMiner strategy mycosis fungoides could be separated from the other states with a maximum of significance (p </= 0.03) by at least 10-fold overexpression of the following tumor cell-representative CMP-motif: CD3+/CD4+/CD1a-/CD7-/CD8-/CD45R0+/CD45RA-/CD11a+. Conclusions: The skin tissue-adapted MELC-application-platform extends substantially conventional lymphoma diagnostics by an unprecedented dimension of in-situ-analysis of marker combinatorics including its exact quantification and visualization.

Published 10 June 2008 in J Dtsch Dermatol Ges.
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