Chromosome 14 translocation in African and North American Burkitt's lymphoma;

Two established North American Burkitt lymphoma cell lines were studied by chromosomal banding techniques. The SU-AmB-1 line previously shown to be negative for the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was found to have, among other changes, a translocation from the long arm (q) of chromosome 8 onto 14q. The SU-AmB-2 line, which contains the EBV genome, also displayed the same 8/14 translocation. These results were compared with data from three EBV-positive tumor cell lines derived from patients with African Burkitt's lymphoma. Our findings indicate that a translocation from 8q onto 14q occurs in both African and North American Burkitt lymphomas, and that this abnormality apparently is not related directly to EBV. This chromosome translocation therefore may be an important event in the development of human lymphocytic malignancy, analogous to the occurrence of the Philadelphia chromosome rearrangement in chronic myelogenous leukemia.