Establishment and characterization of a human myeloid cell line from Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloblastic leukemia arising in a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome.

A new hematopoietic cell line derived from a patient with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph1)-negative myeloblastic leukemia arising from a form of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is described. This cell line, designated TMM, consists of immature cells with the morphological characteristics of young myeloblasts and grows in suspension culture with a doubling time of about 30 hours. By cytochemical analysis the cultured cells were positive for acid phosphatase. They were free of the Epstein-Barr virus-associated nuclear antigen as well as terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase. Further phenotypic analysis revealed the expression of the myelomonocytic-specific antigen Leu-M1 and receptors for the Fc portion of IgG. Partial differentiation of these cells could be induced by dimethyl sulfoxide, tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate, or hypoxanthine and resulted in cells of the myeloid series expressing lysozyme and receptors for the C3b complement protein. The karyotype was 46,XY, lacked the Ph1 chromosome, and displayed no abnormalities at the light microscopic level. No rearrangement of the bcr-c-abl gene complex was found. This cell line should be useful for studying an important type of the heterogeneous population constituting Ph1-negative myeloblastic leukemia, arising in this instance from MDS, as well as for studying differentiation and proliferation of human pluripotent stem cells.