Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine

Original Article

The Expression of DNA Dependent Protein Kinase Protein in Malignant Lymphoma.: Tae Woong Noh, Nam Hoon Cho, Woo Ick Yang; Korean J Pathol. 2001;35(6):477-485.

Abstract: BACKGROUND
DNA dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) composed of Ku70, Ku80 and DNA-PK catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), plays an important role in the primary repair of break points of damaged DNA and is involved in the recombination of the V, D, and J genes. Loss of DNA-PK may lead to immunodeficiency and malignant lymphomas. This hypothesis has been supported by animal study in a Ku70 knock-out mouse model. The relationship between DNA-PK and human malignant lymphoma has not yet been studied.
METHODS
We examined the loss of DNA-PK proteins in 85 representative cases of different subtypes of malignant lymphoma. Immunohistochemical stains for DNA-PK subunits were performed on formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue sections.
RESULTS
Lymphomas demonstrated statistically significant loss of Ku70, Ku80 and DNA-PKcs. T cell lymphomas showed more loss of DNA-PK proteins in comparison with B cell lymphomas. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification system, both T cell lymphomas and high-grade subtypes of B cell lymphomas demonstrated similar degree of loss of DNA-PK proteins.
CONCLUSIONS
We confirmed the loss of DNA-PK proteins in malignant lymphomas through the results of our study, and the loss of these proteins seems to be more significant in high-grade lymphomas. These findings support the role of DNA-PK as a tumor suppressor gene.

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