Cell surface characteristics of human histiocytic lymphoma lines-I. Surface glycoprotein patterns

Abstract

The galactose oxidase tritiated sodium borohydride cell surface labelling technique has been used to study the expression of major surface glycoproteins on 6 human diffuse histiocytic lymphoma (HL) cell lines. The cell surface glycoprotein profiles were compared with that of normal human blood monocytes and granulocytes and 1 myeloid leukemia cell line. Two major types of patterns, one ‘monocytic’ and one ‘lymphoid’ were found among the lines: (1) One line, the U-937, shared the basic surface glycoproteins with normal monocytes and strongly expressed the glycoprotein (GP 130) characteristic for normal granulocytes and myeloid leukemic cells. The U-937 has other phenotypic characteristics strongly suggesting a monocyte derivation. (2) All other lines expressed major surface glycoproteins dissimilar from monocytes and granulocytes but with some resemblance to that of some lymphoid cell populations previously examined by the same surface radiolabelling technique. However, some heterogeneity with regard to the expressed major surface glycoproteins was found within that group of HL lines. The SKW-4 and the Su-DHL-2 both expressed a prominent GP 85 but failed to express detectable GP 24 and GP 31 (Ia-like antigens) while the other three lines (Su-DHL-4; Su-DHL-7 and Su-DHL-9) all had weak GP 85 but identifiable GP 24 and GP 31. The results suggest that galactose oxidase surface radiolabelling technique is useful for distinguishing monocytoid and lymphoid types of HL and that the group of lymphoid HL is heterogenous.