Establishment and characterization of a polyploid mouse myeloid leukemia cell line useful for in-vivo examination of cell proliferation kinetics

Abstract

A near-tetraploid cell line (LL-1) was established from mouse myeloid leukemia M1 cells. This paper reports characterization of the LL-1 cells and the in-vivo detection of the leukemia cells transplanted in syngeneic mice. The LL-1 cells are myeloblastic and grow well in suspension culture. Morphological analysis showed that the nucleus of LL-1 cells was almost twice as large as that of the parent line cells. The modal chromosome number of LL-1 cells was 75, and the DNA index determined by flow cytometry was 2.3. The cells were unresponsive to the inducer of differentiation of M1 cells. Transplantation experiments showed that the LL-1 cells were leukemogenic in syngeneic SL mice: ten mice inoculated i.p. with LL-1 cells (4 × 10 6) all died of leukemia within 6 weeks. The cells in the peritoneal cavity were collected at appropriate times during progression of the leukemia. On microscopic examination the LL-1 cells were clearly distinguishable from normal host cells in the peritoneal cavity by the size of their nucleus. Counts showed that their number decreased markedly during the first 2 weeks after their transplantation, and then increased about ten times in a week. By 4 or 5 weeks after transplantation these LL-1 cells filled the peritoneal cavity. These large-sized leukemia cells that grow in syngeneic mice will be useful for investigating the mechanisms of in-vivo responses of leukemia cells to various therapeutic treatments.