Cytogenetic studies on African Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines: t(8;14), t(2;8) and t(8;22) translocations.

Cytogenetic studies on ten African Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) positive Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cell lines were performed. The usual translocation t(8;14) (q24;q32) was found in five of them, a deletion del(8) (q24 leads to qter) in another one, while four variants were observed, two of these having a t(2;8) (p12;q24) translocation and two a t(8;22) (q24;q11) translocation. Other chromosome abnormalities were seen in seven of the cell lines, but these varied from one cell line to another. Thus, variant translocations, such as we describe here, are found in endemic BL cases. Two of these variants are identical to those previously identified in BL from nonendemic areas. The common chromosome abnormality of these BL cell lines was a rearrangement of the 8q24 band. The role of this constant cytogenetic change remains to be elucidated.