CD4-and CD56-positive T-cell line, MTA, established from natural killer-like T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

We have established a T-cell Liner MTA, from the peripheral blasts of a pat ient with natural killer (NK)-like T-cell leukemia/lymphoma. The MTA cell d isplays a T-cell and NK-cell phenotype (CD2(+), CD3(+), CD4(+), CD56(+)) id entical to freshly isolated leukemic blasts from the patient. This cell Lin e shows clonal T-cell receptor rearrangement and a distinguishable characte r by light microscopy with May-Grunwald Giemsa staining. G-banding analysis showed that the MTA cells had a karyotype of 94(4N), XXXX, add (1) (p36). del (5) (q14q23). add (17) (pll), add (19) (q13). However, unlike NK malign ancy, we could not show a direct pathogenic role for Epstein-Barr virus (EB V) with EBV-encoded small RNA and polymerase chain reaction analysis. The M TA cell line is a novel cell line with which to study NK-like T-cell ontoge necity. (C) 1999 The Japanese Society of Hematology.