Expression of different combinations of interleukins by human T cell leukemic cell lines that are clonally related

We have analyzed expression patterns of 7 lymphokine mRNAs by Northern blot analyses in 19 different human T cell clones derived from patients with adult T cell leukemia. However, we were not able to reveal particular combinations of lymphokine production that allowed classification of human T cells. Especially, four clonally related leukemic lines that were established independently from the same patient with adult T cell leukemia expressed different combinations of lymphokine mRNAs, indicating that the expression of various lymphokines is not fixed but rather variable even among progenies of a single T cell clone.