Decreased calcium dependence of lymphoblastoid cell lines compared with burkitt lymphoma cell lines

✍ Scribed by P. G. Parsons; D. J. Moss; C. Morris; P. Musk; K. Maynard; R. Partridge

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 499 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910350608

✦ Synopsis

The extracellular calcium level required for proliferation was compared in B lymphoid cell lines from various sources by determining the calcium concentration at which long-term proliferation was inhibited by 50% (CaPDSo). Fourteen Burkitt lymphoma (EL) lines had a mean CaPDSo of 44 f 28 PM whereas 45 lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) obtained by in vitro transformation of B lymphocytes with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) had a mean CaPDSo of 3.6 f 1.8 PM. This difference applied also to autologous BL lines and LCLs established from the same patient. The decreased calcium requirement of virally-transformed compared with tumour-derived cell lines therefore appears to be a universal phenomenon in mammalian cells. Within the BL group, no correlation was found between the calcium requirement for proliferation and presence or absence of the EBV genome. Arrest of BL lines and LCLs occurred in the GI phase of the cell cycle and was readily reversed by addition of calcium to the medium. One anomalous LCL was found which showed a high CaPDSo (43 f 6 p ~) and accumulated in both GI and GI. These results, in combination with a previous study of EBV transformation in vitro, indicate that the calcium dependence of B lymphocytes generally decreases in the following order: normal cells > BL cells = early stage transformation > LCL. The 2 transformed phenotypes thus distinguished in human lymphoid cells may offer unique opportunities for defining the status and expression of EBV in vitro and in vivo.