Phorbol ester and B cell-stimulatory factor synergize to induce B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells to simultaneous immunoglobulin secretion and DNA synthesis.

This paper discusses the response of two B cell-type chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) clones, 173 and 183, to the phorbol ester TPA combined with a B cell-stimulatory factor (BSF) derived from a T helper cell hybridoma (MP6). Previous studies with 173 and 183 cells have consistently shown that TPA alone induces differentiation but no proliferation. However, when the two clones were exposed to TPA plus BSF-MP6, not only differentiation but also DNA synthesis was observed. Compared with TPA exposure alone, the fraction of cells with induced lymphoblastoid-plasmacytoid morphology increased and Ig secretion was enhanced. By a 1-hr TPA pulse followed by BSF-MP6, the DNA synthesis was further augmented, but less maturation was observed. T cell and monocyte removal, using cell sorting, showed that the DNA synthesis induced was independent of these cell types, also under serum-free conditions. Quantitation of several cell cycle-associated surface Ags showed that the 4F2, Ba, Bac-1, and cD23 Ags increased while the CD37 decreased in expression upon addition of BSF-MP6. We conclude that B-CLLs are inducible by TPA and BSF-MP6 not only to differentiation, but also to DNA synthesis even under serum-free conditions in vitro. The results furthermore suggest that the very low proliferation activity in B-CLL tumors in vivo may reflect a relative deficiency of proper growth and differentiation factors or a subnormal response of B-CLL cells to such factors.