Follicular Dendritic Cells in Malignant Lymphomas - Distribution, Phenotypes & Ultrastructures

Follicular dendritic cells (FDC) are morphologically and functionally specialized cells which located within the reactive follicles of secondary lymphoid tissues. Recent years, several reports 1-9 described that FDCs also distributed in the lymphoid tissues involved with malignant lymphoma such as follicular lymphoma, diffuse lymphoma, and Hodgkinr’s disease. We expected that the comparison of the distribution pattern, morphology, immunological phenotypes and functional properties of FDC in malignant lymphoma with those of reactive tissues provide us important instances to understand the relationships between the functional properties or differentiation of FDC and the micro-environment organized by surrounding lymphoid cells. In the present study we had examined the morphology, surface phenotypes and distribution patterns of FDC in lymphoma including follicular lymphoma diffuse B-cell lymphoma and T-cell lymphoma and compared with those of reactive follicles.