A new human natural killer leukemia cell line, IMC-1. A complex chromosomal rearrangement defined by spectral karyotyping: functional and cytogenetic characterization

Chen, I-Ming; Whalen, Margaret; Bankhurst, Arthur; Sever, Cordelia E; Doshi, Rashmi; Hardekopf, David; Montgomery, Karen; Willman, Cheryl L

doi:10.1016/S0145-2126(03)00254-6

« Previous Next »Leukemia Research
Volume 28, Issue 3 , Pages 275-284, March 2004

A new human natural killer leukemia cell line, IMC-1. A complex chromosomal rearrangement defined by spectral karyotyping: functional and cytogenetic characterization

I-Ming Chen
- Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 900 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5636, USA
Margaret Whalen
- Department of Medicine, Cancer Center, Center for Molecular and Cellular Diagnostics, 900 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5636, USA
Arthur Bankhurst
- Department of Medicine, Cancer Center, Center for Molecular and Cellular Diagnostics, 900 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5636, USA
- Corresponding author. Present address: Department of Internal Medicine, MSC10 5550, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA. Tel.: +1-505-272-4761; fax: +1-505-272-3624.
Cordelia E Sever
- Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 900 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5636, USA
Rashmi Doshi
- Department of Medicine, Cancer Center, Center for Molecular and Cellular Diagnostics, 900 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5636, USA
David Hardekopf
- Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 900 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5636, USA
Karen Montgomery
- Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 900 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5636, USA
Cheryl L Willman
- Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 900 Camino de Salud NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5636, USA

Received 18 March 2003; accepted 25 June 2003.

Abstract

A new human IL-2 dependent leukemic cell line with a natural killer (NK) cell phenotype, IMC-1, was established from an adult patient with aggressive NK cell leukemia. The IMC-1 cell line expresses the CD56, CD2, CD11a, CD38 and HLA-DR cell surface antigens, whereas the CD16 and CD8 antigens expressed on the primary leukemic blasts from which the cell line was derived were lost after 7 and 28 weeks of culture, respectively. The IMC-1 cell line displays functional NK cytotoxicity and lyses target cells in a non-MHC restricted, antibody-independent manner with equal or superior efficiency to freshly isolated NK cells. Cytogenetic analysis at presentation and after 55 weeks in culture revealed complex structural and numerical abnormalities, defined by classic G-banding and by spectral karyotyping (SKY). Three apparently intact copies of chromosome 8 occurred in the diagnostic bone marrow specimen; the cell line also contains three copies of chromosome 8 but each was structurally altered. The development and detailed characterization of this new NK leukemic cell line will facilitate biologic and functional studies of NK cells and chromosomal aberrations potentially important in leukemic transformation.

Keywords: NK cell, Cell line, Leukemia, IMC-1