Abstract

Most B-cell lymphomas arise in the germinal center (GC), where humoral immune responses evolve from potentially oncogenic cycles of mutation, proliferation, and clonal selection. Although lymphoma gene expression diverges significantly from GC B cells, underlying mechanisms that alter the activities of corresponding regulatory elements (REs) remain elusive. Here we define the complete pathogenic circuitry of human follicular lymphoma (FL), which activates or decommissions REs from normal GC Bcells and commandeers enhancers from other lineages. Moreover, independent sets of transcription factors, whose expression was deregulated inFL, targeted commandeered versus decommissioned REs. Our approach revealed two distinct subtypes of low-grade FL, whose pathogenic circuitries resembled GC B or activated B cells. FL-altered enhancers also were enriched for sequence variants, including somatic mutations, which disrupt transcription-factorbinding and expression of circuit-linked genes. Thus, the pathogenic regulatory circuitry of FL reveals distinct genetic and epigenetic etiologies for GC B-cell transformation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)186-198
Number of pages13
JournalImmunity
Volume42
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 20 2015

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