Ectonucleotidase CD39 is highly expressed on ATLL cells and is responsible for their immunosuppressive function.

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) patients are in severely poor prognosis partially because of their immunosuppressive state. As majority of patients have leukemic cells with the similar phenotype with Tregs, some reports have suggested that ATLL cells themselves have immunosuppressive functions. However, hitherto, there are controvertial discussions. In this study, we found that CD39 is expressed on some of ATLL cells, especially highly on those of aggressive subtypes. Overall design: We compared whole transcriptome of leukemic cells and that of normal CD4+ cells, using RNA-seq technologies.