Heterogeneity of T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cell lines: Suggestion for classification by immunophenotype and T-cell receptor studies

Hematopoietic cell lines are often used as representatives for a certain ce ll differentiation lineage and stage, particularly in immunological and hem atological studies. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) of T-cell type is a rather heterogeneous group of ALL at least by immunophenotyping. Our aim wa s to present a comprehensive characterization of frequently used T-cell leu kemia cell lines and to suggest a correlation with the normal differentiati on pattern. A total of 16 T-ALL cell lines were analyzed for their immunoph enotype and for T-cell receptor (TCR) rearrangement and expression. The pan el of 20 cell surface markers included two new monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) , TC-12 and TH-111, which were raised in our laboratory and detect subpopul ations of T-cell ALL. TC-12 was typed 'unique', TH-111 was assigned to the CD96 cluster at the Vth Conference on human leucocyte differentiation antig ens (HLDA). We categorized the 16 cell lines into the four groups pro-T, pr e-T, cortical T and mature T differentiation stage according to the recent proposal of the European Group for the Immunological Characterization of Le ukemias (EGIL). Interestingly, none of the T-cell lines were found to be al ike. In conclusion, it appears necessary to consider the particular differe ntiation stage of each individual cell line when using T-cell leukemia line s as models for malignant or normal T cells. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.