Establishment of a new human acute monocytic leukemia cell line TZ-1 with t(1;11)(p32;q23) and fusion gene MLL-EPS15.

Human leukemia cell lines are of great value in investigating basic and applied aspects of cell biology and clinical medicine. There have been 37 leukemia cell lines carrying 11q23 translocation and MLL rearrangements; however, cell lines harboring with t(1;11)(p32;q23) have not been established. We report here for the first time a new acute monocytic leukemia (AMoL) cell line with t(1;11)(p32;q23), designated TZ-1, and herein describe its biological characteristics. Mononuclear cells isolated from the ascites from a patient with AMoL (French-American-British classification; acute myeloid leukemia M5a) were isolated and passaged by liquid culture medium for a year. TZ-1 cells revealed typical monocytic features in morphology and had a t(1;11)(p32;q23) translocation. The immunoprofiling as determined by flow cytometry showed that TZ-1 cells are positive for myeloid and monocytic markers with lymphoid-associated markers. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analyses revealed MLL-EPS15 fusion transcript and protein. Taken together, these results suggest that TZ-1 is a new monocytic leukemia cell line with t(1;11) translocation and fusion gene MLL-EPS15. The established cell line, TZ-1, could provide a valuable model in the analysis of the pathogenesis of MLL-EPS15-positive leukemia and in the development of new agents for this type of leukemia.