Establishment of a lymphoid cell line from leukemic cells of a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Two lymphoid cell lines were established from a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia by infecting blood cells with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Studies of morphology, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme, immunoglobulin, and chromosomes of the two lines indicated that one of them originated from leukemic cells while the other arose from residual normal blood cells. The morphology and capacity for immunoglobulin secretion in the line that arose from leukemic cells were similar to those found in EVB-carrying lymphoblastoid cell lines grown from patients without neoplasia and differed from those seen in fresh chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells. These observations suggest that the introduction of EBV into the leukemic cells may have caused them to differentiate in a fashion similar to that noted in normal B cells after exposure to EBV.