Pathology Outlines

Stains
BCL6

Author: Nat Pernick, M.D. (see Authors page)

Revised: 30 October 2015, last major update January 2012

Copyright: (c) 2003-2015, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed Search: bcl6[title]

Table of Contents

Cite this page: BCL6. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/stainsbcl6.html. Accessed July 12th, 2017.

Definition / general

Transcription factor at 3q27 normally expressed in germinal centers and in 5-15% of intrafollicular CD4+ T cells
Protects germinal center (GC) B cells against DNA damage-induced apoptosis during somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination (J Exp Med 2010;207:1209)
Translocations help define "double hit" lymphomas (Am J Clin Pathol 2010;134:258)

Interpretation

Nuclear staining

Uses by pathologists

Germinal center marker (also CD10)
Marker for follicular lymphoma (30-80%) of cases, can distinguish from MALT (bcl6-)
Double staining of CD3 and bcl6 is helpful in appreciating follicular T-helper cell immunophenotype of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (Hum Pathol 2010;41:79)

Microscopic (histologic) images

Images hosted on other servers:

Follicular lymphoma: left-spleen (fig C), right-site unspecified

Intestinal large B-cell lymphoma (fig 3)

Mantle cell lymphoma case is bcl6+ (uncommon)

Neuroblastoma

Nodal marginal zone lymphoma (top)
is bcl6- versus bcl6+ diffuse follicular
center lymphoma (bottom)

Images hosted on Nature.com:

Diffuse blastoid B cell lymphoma (fig C)

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma-leg type (left) versus primary cutaneous follicular center lymphoma (right)

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (fig E)

Positive staining - normal

Germinal center marker of lymph nodes (also CD10), follicular helper T cells (Science 2009;325:1001)

Positive staining - disease

Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma (Mod Pathol 2010;23:909)
Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (30-80%, not bone-see below), follicular lymphoma, particularly with plasmacytic differentiation (Mod Pathol 2010;23:71), Hodgkin lymphoma-nodular lymphocyte predominant, neuroblastoma (Transl Oncol 2009;2:128)
Plasmablastic lymphoma of oral mucosa type, primary cutaneous CD4 small/medium-sized pleomorphic T-cell lymphoma (Am J Surg Pathol 2012;36:109-atypical large cells), primary cutaneous follicular lymphoma (almost all, Am J Surg Pathol 2001;25:732)

Negative staining

Late germinal center or post-germinal center cells
Diffuse large B cell lymphoma-bone ( Am J Clin Pathol 2008;129:723)
MALT lymphoma / nodal marginal zone lymphoma (although colonized follicles have bcl6+ cells, Am J Clin Pathol 2009;132:39), mantle cell lymphoma (usually, Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol 2010;18:103)

Molecular / cytogenetics description

Frequently rearranged in nodal diffuse large B cell lymphoma (Hum Pathol 2009;40:645)

Molecular / cytogenetics images

Dual-color FISH analysis for BCL6