Abstract
Summary Three continuous suspension cultures of human lymphocytic cells (EB-3, Burkitt's lymphoma; CCRF-RKB, infectious mononucleosis; and CCRF-CEM, acute lymphoblastic leukemia) have been compared by cytochemical population analysis. The frequency distribution patterns, as well as the mean values for total dry mass, total nucleic acid content and DNA content per cell were similar in all three cell lines when studied in log-phase growth, suggesting similarities in the growth kinetics of lymphocytic cells derived from both benign and malignant lymphoproliferative disease. The frequency distribution of the DNA content per cell displayed a bimodal pattern similar to that exhibited by other exponentially growing cells in culture. The frequency distribution patterns of total dry mass and total nucleic acid content per cell exhibited greater degrees of intercellular variability than would be expected in populations of normal cells, but such variability was considerably less than that characteristic of cell populations in monolayer cultures derived from other kinds of neoplastic tissue. As was the case with cell populations derived from peripheral blood, lymphocytic cells in cultures derived from acute lymphoblastic leukemia could not be distinguished from those similarly derived from infectious mononucleosis.
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