Autotaxin (ATX) is a tumour cell motility-stimulating factor originally isolated from
melanoma cell supernatants. ATX is identical to
lysophospholipase D, which produces a bioactive
lipid mediator,
lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), from
lysophosphatidylcholine. ATX is overexpressed in various
malignancies, including
Hodgkin lymphoma, and ATX may stimulate tumour progression via LPA production. The present study measured the serum ATX
antigen levels in patients with haematological
malignancies using a recently developed automated
enzyme immunoassay. The serum ATX
antigen levels in patients with B-cell
neoplasms, especially
follicular lymphoma (FL), were higher than those in healthy subjects. Serum ATX
antigen levels in FL patients were associated with tumour burden and changed in parallel with the patients' clinical courses. The serum ATX
antigen levels were little affected by
inflammation, unlike the soluble
interleukin-2 receptor and beta2-microglobulin levels. As expected, the plasma LPA levels in FL patients were correlated with the serum ATX
antigen levels. Given that leukaemic tumour cells from FL patients expressed ATX, the shedding of ATX from
lymphoma cells probably leads to the elevation of serum ATX
antigen levels. Our results suggest that the serum ATX
antigen level may be a promising and novel marker for FL.