Establishment of cell line with NK/NKT phenotype from myeloid NK cell acute leukemia

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is the most common malignancy in adults with a 5-year survival rate of 27% of the total affected population. For effective treatment and new drug discovery, cell lines are considered as a very important tool. Here we report an establishment of a continuous human cell line AML-004 with a hypo-diploid chromosome 44 and presence of both NK/NKT phenotypes. The cell line was isolated from the blood sample of myeloid NK cell acute leukemia patients and extensively characterized by flow cytometery, morphology, and cytogentic analysis. Cytotoxicity by standard chemotherapeutic drugs was also examined. As characterized by Giemsa staining, the predominant cell type in the culture had high nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio. Cytogenetic analysis revealed high chromosome instability and structural abnormalities confirming the source of cell line from a patient with AML. The karyotype of the isolated cells did not alter up to around 40 passages. These AML-004 cells lacked specific markers for B and T lymphoid cells, but expressed surface receptors for lymphoid/NK cells. Cells also lacked the presence of early progenitors. The proliferation of the isolated cells was inversely proportional to the IL-2 concentration confirming presence of NK phenotype. AML-004 was resistant against standard chemotherapeutic drugs excluding cisplatin. Thus, AML-004 cells provide a continuous source of human cells for designing novel therapies for patients with T-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma.