Establishment of a peripheral T-cell lymphoma cell line showing amplification of the c-myc oncogene.

A new T-cell lymphoma cell line, designated T34, was established from freshly isolated lymph node tumor cells of a patient with non-Hodgkin's diffuse large cell lymphoma. The T34 cells, as well as the parental lymphoma cells, showed mature helper/inducer immunophenotypes in that they formed spontaneous sheep erythrocyte rosettes and reacted with OKT-3 and OKT-4 monoclonal antibodies. They were negative for OKT-6, OKT-8, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase, WT-1, and HLA-DR antigens. Molecular analysis revealed that the T34 cells contained 8- to 16-fold amplified c-myc DNA. The same genetic change was observed in parental lymphoma cells, indicating that the c-myc amplification had occurred in vivo. There was no gross rearrangement of the c-myc DNA. The c-myc gene of the T34 cell line was actively transcribed into normal-sized c-myc mRNA. Cytogenetic analysis showed that both the T34 and the parental lymphoma cells had a near-triploid karyotype with multiple structural chromosome changes. The terminal end of the long arm of chromosome No. 8, the chromosomal locus of single-copy c-myc, was elongated (8q+ chromosome), perhaps reflecting the site of c-myc amplification. These data suggested that amplification of the c-myc oncogene played some role in progression and proliferation of this peripheral T-cell neoplasm.