Diversity of immunoglobulin expression in leukaemic cells resembling B-lymphocyte precursors

• Published in: Nature (London) 1981-03, Vol.290 (5804), p.339-341
• Main Authors: Vogler, L. B., Preud'homme, J. L., Seligmann, M., Gathings, W. E., Crist, W. M., Cooper, M. D., Bollum, F. J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: B-Lymphocytes - cytology; B-Lymphocytes - immunology; Cell Differentiation; Gene Expression Regulation; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Immunoglobulin alpha-Chains - genetics; Immunoglobulin gamma-Chains - genetics; Immunoglobulin Light Chains - genetics; Immunoglobulin mu-Chains - genetics; letter; Leukemia, Myeloid - immunology; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute - immunology; multidisciplinary; Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell - genetics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/290339a0

Approximately 20% of patients with acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) have leukaemic blasts with features of pre-B cells 1 which are the recently characterized precursors of B lymphocytes in normal development (for a review, see ref. 2). Pre-B cells isolated from normal bone marrow or fetal liver, and malignant cells from patients with pre-B cell leukaemia, are rapidly dividing lymphoid cells that contain cytoplasmic immunoglobulin μ heavy chains, but have no detectable surface immunoglobulin. The resemblance of immunoglobulin-containing ALL cells to normal precursors of B lymphocytes and their availability in relatively pure preparations allowed us to explore them as models of early stages in the differentiation of the B-lymphocyte line. We report here observations on the occurrence of intermediate pre-B/B-cell phenotypes, immunoglobulin isotype switching and the asynchrony of immunoglobulin heavy and light chain expression in 30 cases of ALL and 3 cases of chronic myelogenous leukaemia in lymphoblastic crisis (CML-BC).