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Spontaneous lymphoblastoid transformation of long‐term cell cultures from human malignant lymphoma
Author(s) -
Pontén Jan
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910020406
Subject(s) - lymphoblast , biology , pathology , malignant transformation , lymphoma , homologous chromosome , leukemia , cell culture , tissue culture , lymphocyte , immunology , cancer research , genetics , medicine , in vitro , gene
Long‐term tissue cultures of human malignant lymphomas have been compared to cultures of lymphadenitis and normal skin. A modified Trowell grid type of culture was used. Six out of six cases of malignant lymphoma differed from the control cultures by exhibiting patches of irregular, apparently random growth of fibroblastoid cells. Three of these six cultures underwent a lymphoblastoid transformation morphologically similar to the alteration described by Benyesh‐Melnick et al. (1963) in a small fraction of bone marrow cultures obtained from leukemic children. The process involved growth of fibroblastoid cells during a preliminary stage lasting 9–18 weeks after explantation. After this the cultures changed into a system consisting of reticulum‐like cells with apparent differentiation to lymphoblast‐ and lymphocyte‐like elements. The reticulolymphoid cells could only be grown and maintained in the presence of fibroblastic cells. Heterologous and homologous fibroblastic cells could be used, but the best survival and multiplication of the reticulo‐lymphoid cells was obtained in mixtures with autologous fibroblastic elements. Lymphoblastoid transformation seemed to require that the original explants be kept as intact grid cultures for a minimum time of about 6–12 weeks corresponding to at least three grid transfers. No lymphoblastoid transformation was observed in five non‐malignant lymphnodes. The only transformed culture analyzed showed a chromosome number of 47. The extra chromosome was a large metacentric which resembled a normal chromosome No. 3. All dividing cells apparently had the same chromosome change. Fibroblastic cells from non‐neoplastic skin or lymph‐nodes had a finite life span in vitro of about the same length regardless of whether they were trypsinized and subcultivated or transferred as undisturbed grid cultures.