A NEW HUMAN T-CELL LYMPHOMA CELL-LINE (KARPAS-384) OF THE T-CELL RECEPTOR-GAMMA-DELTA LINEAGE WITH TRANSLOCATION T(7 14) (P13-Q11.2)/

A new human T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma cell line of the T-cell recept or (TCR) gamma/delta lineage has been derived from the peripheral bloo d of a patient with a subcutaneous T-cell lymphoma in leukemic phase. The cell line (Karpas 384) initially had the same characteristics as m alignant cells from the patient. Both the original tumor and the cell line failed to express any T-cell differentiation antigens other than very weak cell-surface expression of CD3 and cytoplasmic CD7; with con tinued growth in vitro, surface CD3 became undetectable in the presenc e of maintained strong cytoplasmic expression. The cell line has a com plex karyo-type with six abnormal chromosomes exhibiting not only t(7; 14) (p13;q11.2) but also inv7(p13;q22.1), t(1;2)(q11;q35), t(2;1;14) ( q35;q11-q32.1;q22.1), interstitial deletion 12(q24.1q24.3), and an uni dentified marker chromosome. DNA blot analysis showed that TCR Cbeta a nd TCR Jalpha-Calpha DNA sequences were in germline configuration in a ll restriction endonuclease digests. TCRgamma sequences showed biallel ic Vgamma9-JgammaP-Cgamma1 rearrangements, the TCRgamma rearrangement detected in the majority of normal TCRgamma/gamma bearing cells. Use o f a range of TCRdelta probes showed biallelic deletion of both Jdelta1 and Jdelta2, but three rearranged fragments when probed with a 3' Cde lta genomic probe. Similar breakpoints at 7p13 have been reported in a wide range of hematologic malignancies. Molecular cloning of the t(7; 14)(p13;q11.2) translocation breakpoint in this cell line may define n ew DNA sequences of oncogenic potential at the 7p13 locus.