Electrophoretic mobility patterns of immunologically phenotyped cells in different hemopoietic malignancies

The electrophoretic mobility distribution along with the immunologic phenotype (rosette tests, surface membrane immunoglobulin determination and mainly the detection of differentiation and leukemia-associated antigens by monoclonal antibodies) have been studied in 120 patients with different hemopoietic cell malignancies and in a group of healthy donors. The aim of our study was to compare the electrophoretic mobility character of malignant cells with that of normal T and B lymphocytes and their immune phenotype. Normal peripheral blood lymphocytes showed the typical bimodal pattern of two clearly distinguishable populations of different electrophoretic mobilities, corresponding to T and B cells. In leukemia and lymphoma cells the sharp unimodal peak has appeared, which was attributed to monoclonal origin of these cells. Moreover, the electrophoretic mobility of cells in different hemopoietic cell malignancies reflected different cell lineages and maturation stages within the given lineage group. Utilizing of the cell electrophoretic mobility as an additional marker to the immunologic data for the characterization of leukemia and lymphoma cells is proposed.