Differential binding of hyaluronic acid in two CD44+sublines. Relationshipwith tumor infiltration.

We have established and characterized a cell line (LBL) from a spontaneous murine T lymphoma LB. Histopatological analysis has demonstrated LB primary tumor infiltration in spleen, lymph nodes, liver, thymus, bone marrow and lung. However LBL cells infiltrated all these organs except lung. Two subli nes with different growth behavior were derived from LBL cell line. One of them grew in suspension as clusters (LBLc) while the other one grew as adhe rent monolayers (LBLa). Growth rate, response to mitogenic stimuli and apop tosis induction were different among the parental cell line and the derived sulblines. CD44 was expressed constitutively in LBL and LBLa cells. In con trast LBLc cells only expressed similar levels of this molecule when stimul ated with PMA. LBLa cells showed hyaluronic acid (HA) binding properties, w hile LBL and LBLc cells were not able to bind HA even when activated with P MA. We postulate that differences in HA binding could be related with diffe rent infiltration behaviors.