Lactate dehydrogenase isoenzymatic analysis of murine lymphocyte populations: a parameter of cellular differentiation

Secretory leukemic B cells express T cell markers in vitro. A phenomenon suppressed by TPA

Immunological and biochemical markers of leukemia/lymphoma cells have provided valuable insight into hematopoietic malignancy and normal differentiation. The general assumption is that as early lymphoid cells become committed towards terminal differentiation they lose their capacity for bimodal differentiation and cells become restricted to B or T cell development and function. We have observed that phenotypically "late" leukemic B cells close to secretory stage can spontaneously express mature T cell antigens (T11, T4 and T8) after culture in vitro. In further studies of these cells, it was found that the biochemical marker lactate Dehydrogenase (LD) follows the intermediate pattern expressed by thymocytes rather than that of typical B cells. The expression of T cell antigens can be blocked by incubating these cells with the phorbol ester TPA (12-0-tetradecanoyl phorbol 13 acetate) which promotes unidirectional B cell maturation to plasmacytoid cells in a way that mimics normal B cell differentiation. These observations indicate that presecretory malignant B cells are still programmed to express T cell biochemical and antigenic markers and this expression can be influenced by environmental conditions in vitro.

Subpopulations of T lymphocytes from human blood differing in density and stage of maturation

Previous investigations have shown that peripheral lymphocytes with a low specific gravity are much more active than are heavy lymphocytes in the proliferative response towards mitogens, antigens and allogeneic lymphocytes. We have now studied the biological significance of this difference in human peripheral T lymphocytes with two independent parameters generally regarded as maturation criteria. Heavy human T lymphocytes contain about one-third of the amount of cyclic AMP found in light T cells, but the increase in cyclic AMP produced by isoproterenol or prostaglandin E1 is much higher in the heavy T cells. The lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme pattern of heavy human T lymphocytes is intermediate between that of human thymocytes and light T lymphocytes, the latter showing the most mature pattern. A high correlation was found between these two parameters, the cell density and the reactivity towards phytohemagglutinin. We conclude that human peripheral T lymphocytes are heterogeneous in maturation level: heavy, nonreactive T lymphocytes are less mature than light T lymphocytes.