Establishment and characterization of a new human acute myelomonocytic leukemia cell line JIH-3

Here, a new acute myelomonocytic leukemia (AMML) cell line, JIH-3, is reported, and its biological characteristics are described. JIH-3 cells were maintained without any cytokines for 27 months. The JIH-3 cell line showed typical myelomonocytic morphological features. Additionally, it mainly expressed myeloid and monocytic markers (CD13, CD14, CD11b, CD15 and CD33), although it also expressed other antigens such as the markers of T and B lymphocytic lineage as well as stem cell, progenitor cell, and natural killer cell-related antigens (CD4, CD5, CD7, CD10, CD22, CD34, CD38, HLADR, CD16/CD56 and CD56); the expression of these markers, suggested that this cell line was in the early stage of myelomonocytic differentiation. Cytogenetic analysis initially showed a karyotype of 46, XY, del(7) (p1?3p2?2). During the passage period, the cells with this karyotype gradually decreased and were replaced by cells with a 45,XY,dic(4;7)(p11;p11),del(15)(q2?2) karyotype. Chromosome painting showed a deletion in the short arm of chromosome 7 for del(7)(p1?3p2?2) and der(4;7)(p11;p11). The latter had larger deleted segment than the former. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) revealed the dicentric nature of der(4;7), and Multiplex FISH (M-FISH) confirmed that der(4;7) was an unbalanced translocation. A deletion involving the 7p region on dic(4;7)(p11;p11) harbors many genes, including CDC2L5, C7ORF11, C7ORF10 and INHBA. Haploinsufficiency of the genes on 4p, 7p and 15q caused by deletions of 4p, 7p and 15q2?2 that resulted from dic(4;7)(p11;p11) and del(15)(q2?2) may play important roles in leukemogenesis and in the establishment of the JIH-3 cell line. JIH-3 cells did not express multidrug resistance (MDR)-related genes and apoptosis-related genes such as MDR1, multidrug resistance-related protein, lung resistance protein, BCL-2, Bax, GS-π or Fax, only P21 expression was detected, which probably leads the MDR indirectly through inhibition of the activities of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK). JIH-3 cells had tumorigenic capacity in nude mice. In conclusion, JIH-3 is a new acute myelomonocytic leukemia cell line. It is from a well-characterized background and provides a new useful tool for the study of leukemia patients with a 7p deletion.