Summary
We report the first characterization of a mouse T-lymphoma cell line that surprisingly expresses cytoplasmatic (cy) cyCD4. Phenotypically, LBC cells are CD5+, CD8+, CD16+, CD24+, CD25+, CD2−/dim, CD3−/dim, TCRβ−/dim, TCRγδ−, CD154−, CD40−, and CD45R−. Coexpress cyTCRβ, cyCD3, cyCD4, and yet lack surface CD4 expression. Transplantation of LBC cells into mice resulted in an aggressive T-lymphoblastic lymphoma that infiltrated lymph nodes, thymus, spleen, liver, ovary, and uterus but not peripheral blood or bone marrow. LBC cells display a modal chromosome number of 39 and a near-diploid karyotype. Based on the characterization data, we demonstrated that the LBC cell line was derived from an early T-cell lymphocyte precursor. We propose that the malignant cell transformation of LBC cells could coincide with the transition stage from late double-negative, DN3 (CD4−, CD8−CD44−/low, CD25+) or DN4 (CD4−/low, CD8−/low, CD44−, CD25−) to double-positive (DP: CD4+CD8+) stage of T-cell development. LBC cells provide a T-lymphoblastic lymphoma model derived from a malignant early T-lymphocyte that can be potentially useful as a model to study both cellular regulation and differentiation of T-cells. In addition, LBC tumor provides a short latency neoplasm to study cellular regulation and to perform preclinical trials of lymphoma-related disorders.
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Mongini, C., Ruybal, P., Gravisaco, M.J. et al. Characterization of the immunophenotype and the metastatic properties of a murine T-lymphoma cell line. Unexpected expression of cytoplasmatic CD4. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Animal 37, 499–504 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1290/1071-2690(2001)037<0499:COTIAT>2.0.CO;2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1290/1071-2690(2001)037<0499:COTIAT>2.0.CO;2