Acceleration of a murine T-cell leukemia associated with loss of interleukin-3 producing activity

L-8313 is a murine T-cell leukemia cell line the cells of which constitutively produce interleukin-3 (IL-3). S2-8313 is a unique subline of L-8313 which has lost IL-3 producing activity. Although the growth of S2-8313 cells in the bone marrow is comparable to that of L-8313 cells, the survival time of C3H mice grafted with S2-8313 cells is significantly shorter than that of C3H mice grafted with L-8313 cells. The accelerated death observed in C3H mice bearing S2-8313 cells is attributable to early development of granulocytopenia and thrombocytopenia, which resulted from the loss of the IL-3 producing activity.