A T-cell line with an unusual phenotype

A rapidly proliferating T-cell line, HCD8, was derived from the peripheral blood lymphocytes of an apparently healthy individual during the course of a T-cell cloning experiment. This T-cell line expressed a very unusual phenotype: CD1+, CD2-, CD3+ (cytoplasmic), CD4-, CD5+, CD7+, CD8-, interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2 R) (p55)-, and T-cell antigen receptor (TCAR) alpha beta-. Assays for reverse transcriptase activity and for human T-lymphotropic retroviral sequences in the cellular DNA were negative, indicating that the cells were not transformed by human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-I, HTLV-II, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-I. Culturing the cells in the differentiation inducing agent 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol 13-acetate induced an increased expression of CD3 but no other significant changes in T-cell markers. A small population of CD4-negative and CD8-negative T-lymphocytes exist in human peripheral blood and they exhibit natural killer (NK) and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxic (ADCC) activity. However, the authors' cell line failed to demonstrate such cytotoxic function. The TCAR gene rearrangement studies showed that both T gamma genes were rearranged while the T beta genes were in the germ line configuration and the T delta genes were deleted. HCD8 strongly expressed the antigens Leu M1 and Ki-1, markers detected only rarely on normal unstimulated human T-cells, but quite consistently found on Reed-Sternberg cells and cells of some large pleomorphic T-cell lymphomas. HCD8 may be used to study the control of Leu M1 and Ki-1 expression in T-cells and it may provide some insight into the cellular origin of the above-mentioned lymphomas.