Immunohistochemical absence of CD21 membrane receptor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells infected by Epstein-Barr virus in Spanish patients

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study was to analyze the relevance of the CD21 membrane receptor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). CD21 is implicated in the introduction of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome into epithelial cells and B lymphocytes. STUDY DESIGN: Immunohistochemical analysis of CD21 in NPC. METHODS: Paraffin-embedded samples of NPC of different histological types with demonstrated presence of EBV were analyzed for CD21 expression using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: We detected EBV by non-isotopic in situ hybridization (NISH) and nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 100% of samples, regardless of histological type, supporting the previous view that all the types of NPC are variants of an EBV-associated malignancy. CD21 was not detected in NPC, and this absence was a typical feature in our data group. CONCLUSIONS: The loss of the CD21 membrane receptor could be one of the immunophenotypical changes of the neoplastic cells that occur in the evolution of the NPC malignancy.