Expression profile of Eph receptors and ephrin ligands in healthy human B lymphocytes and chronic lymphocytic leukemia B-cells.

Increasing information relates some Eph receptors and their ligands, ephrins (EFN), with the immune system. Herein, we found that normal B-cells from peripheral blood (PB) and lymph nodes (LN) showed a differential expression of certain Eph/EFN members, some of them being modulated upon in vitro stimulation including EFNA1, EFNA4, EphB6 and EphA10. In contrast, PB CLL B-cells showed a more heterogeneous Eph/EFN profile than their normal PB B-cell counterparts, expressing Eph/EFN members frequently found within the LN and activated B-cells, specially EFNA4, EphB6 and EphA10.