Developmentally controlled transcription of HLA and beta 2-microglobulin genes in human teratocarcinoma lines

Poly(A+) RNA have been extracted from the human adult cell lines Raji and D98 (HeLa) and from the teratocarcinoma-derived cell lines TeraI and PA1. The TeraI cell line expresses many markers in common with undifferentiated mouse embryonal carcinoma cells and has been previously shown to be less differentiated than PA1. Only small amounts of poly(A+) RNA extracted from TeraI were found to hybridize with human HLA and beta 2-microglobulin (beta 2m) cDNA probes, while poly(A+) RNA from PA1 and the two other adult cell lines exhibited intense hybridization to these two probes. Our results correlate with the differentiation status of the various cell lines as defined by serological and biochemical analysis and suggest that HLA and beta 2m gene expression is mainly controlled at the transcriptional level.