Human neoplastic B cells express more than two isotypes of immunoglobulins without deletion of heavy-chain constant-region genes.

Flow cytometric analyses of surface immunoglobulins of human neoplastic B cells from four patients indicated that more than two isotypes were expressed on the surface of each patient's neoplastic B cells. Southern blot analysis of DNAs of these cells showed that each patient's neoplastic cells had the monoclonal rearrangement profile of the J segment of the immunoglobulin heavy-chain gene. Heavy-chain constant-region genes of these cells had no deletion associated with S-S recombination. Northern blot analysis of RNA from two neoplastic cells revealed that each RNA contained comparable amounts of mRNAs for two different isotypes which were identified by surface staining. These results support the hypothesis that the simultaneous expression of two different isotypes in a certain stage of B-cell differentiation is mediated by alternative RNA splicing without DNA deletion.