Establishment and characterization of acute B-cell lymphocytic leukemia cell line showing (8;14) and (14;18) chromosome translocation.

Cell line KHM-2B expressing two oncogene products, c-myc and bcl-2, was established from a patient with acute lymphocytic leukemia with an 8;14 and 14;18 chromosome translocation. Surface marker studies of the cell line showed that the cells were positive for HLA-DR, CALLA (CD10), B1 (CD20) and B4 (CD19), but negative for T11 (CD2). The fresh cells from peripheral blood of the patient had no surface immunoglobulins, whereas KHM-2B cells were positive for mu.lambda type surface immunoglobulin. A cytogenetic analysis of the cell line revealed two translocations, t (8;14) (q24;q32) and t(14;18)(q32;q21). Rearrangement of the c-myc and bcl-2 genes was detected by Southern blot analysis of the KHM-2B DNA. Northern blot analysis revealed production of c-myc and bcl-2 mRNAs. These results indicated that two oncogenes were activated by two translocations to immunoglobulin genes.