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Exploration of the possibility of using the CD177 expression in the peripheral blood neutrophils for the diagnosis of either entity.

Skewed high peripheral blood neutrophil CD177 MFI was significantly associated with Philadelphia-negative cMPDs patients (2.9-37.4; median 14.1) compared to controls (0.8-20.5; median 8.8). The MDS patients did not show a significant difference in either CD177 % or MFI compared to the controls. Polycythemia Vera (PV) patients had similar results of CD177 expression (% and MFI) compared to Essential Thrombocytosis (ET) patients. However, they had higher CD177 MFI levels compared to the secondary erythrocytosis patients and controls (4.8-37.4; median 16.5, 1.58-25.7; median 5.81, 0.85-20.5; median 8.8 respectively). CD177 MFI showed statistically significant higher values in ET patients compared to the haematologically normal control group (2.9-34.5; median 13.4 versus 0.85-20.5; median 8.8 respectively). No correlation between CD177 expression and JAK2 V617F allele burden could be detected in either PV or ET patients. With a 20 p.d.u cutoff, the specificity of neutrophil CD177 MFI in Philadelphia-negative cMPDs patients’ diagnosis and differentiation of PV from secondary erythrocytosis was 93% and 85% respectively. The CD177 % had a low accuracy of in the diagnosis of MDS patients. The CD177 patterns observed were one positive peak and bimodal pattern (Figure1).

Figure 1: Patterns of peripheral blood neutrophil CD177+ve cells expression observed in flow cytometry. A) Bimodal pattern. B, C, D, E) CD177 single positive peak varieties.

The CD177 expression is highly associated with Philadelphia-negative cMPDs. It could reliably represent a useful potential marker in detecting those disorders and differentiating them from reactive cases.