Presence and expression of a novel variant form of ST2 gene product in human leukemic cell line UT-7/GM

A novel variant cDNA from the human ST2 gene other than ST2 or ST2L was ide ntified and tentatively named ST2V. Alternative splicing inserts a new exon which leads to a change in the C-terminal portion of ST2, causing it to ga in a hydrophobic tail instead of losing the third immunoglobulin-like domai n. ST2V is expressed in human leukemic cell line UT-7 and its sublines UT-7 /GM, UT-7/EPO, and UT-7/TPO, in addition to human helper T cell line 5C10. The amount of ST2V mRNA is greatly diminished when UT-7/GM cells are induce d to differentiate into either erythroblastic or megakaryoblastic phenotype s. The possible roles of the ST2V in growth and differentiation are intrigu ing. (C) 1999 Academic Press.