NORMAL AND ABERRANT EXPRESSION OF CYTOKINES IN NEOPLASTIC-CELLS FROM CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIAS

Molecular expression of cytokines and cytokine receptors associated wi th B-cell growth and differentiation was examined in cells from B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients using the PCR. These studies we re undertaken in order to determine whether a particular cytokine coul d be associated with leukemic transformation in this disease. The prec ursor-lymphoid and pro-B, pre-B-cell growth factor, interleukin-7, was found to be expressed in 30 of 30 patients, whereas, it was not expre ssed in normal donor peripheral blood lymphocytes (0 of 8) or in purif ied B-cell subsets from normal individuals. IL-1beta and IL-2 receptor s, on the other hand, were expressed by B cells from both normal and B -CLL patients. Other cytokine and cytokine receptors examined were not consistently expressed by all donors. Thus IL-7 was found to be the o nly cytokine tested that was expressed in CLL cells and not in normal cells.