Expression of miR-155 and miR-126 in situ in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma

Recently, miR-155 has been implicated in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). Thus, elevated levels of miR-155 were observed in skin lesions from CTCL patients as judged from qPCR and micro-array analysis and aberrant, high miR-155 expression was associated with severe disease. Moreover, miR-155 promoted proliferation of malignant T cells in vitro. Little is, however, known about which cell types express miR-155 in vivo in CTCL skin lesions. Here, we study miR-155 expression using in situ hybridization (ISH) with a miR-155 probe, a negative control (scrambled), and a miR-126 probe as a positive control in nine patients with mycosis fungoides, the most frequent subtype of CTCL. We provide evidence that both malignant and non-malignant T cells stain weakly to moderately positive with the miR-155 probe, but generally negative with the miR-126 and negative control probes. Reversely, endothelial cells stain positive for miR-126 and negative for miR-155 and the control probe. Solitary T cells with a malignant morphology display brighter staining with the miR-155 probe. Taken together, our findings suggest that both malignant and non-malignant T cells express miR-155 in situ in CTCL. Moreover, they indicate heterogeneity in miR-155 expression among malignant T cells.