Tumorigenicity of human lymphoblastoid cell lines, acquired during in vitro culture and associated with chromosome gains.

Tumorigenicity of human lymphoma and lymphoblastoid B-cell lines was assessed by their ability to form growing and transplantable masses on subcutaneous inoculation into neonatally thymectomized, Ara-C-protected, total-body-irradiated mice. By these criteria, 12 lines of known malignant origin were tumorigenic, 11 lymphoblastoid lines, tested after less than one year of in vitro growth, were non-tumorigenic and 8/18 long-established lymphoblastoid lines produced transplantable tumours. All of the long-established lines had acquired karyotypic changes on prolonged culture, the predominant characteristic being a gain of whole chromosomes or of major chromosome segments. None showed the classical 8:14 translocation associated with Burkitt's lymphoma. Comparisons with nontumorigenic precursors (recovered from liquid nitrogen storage) and with other non-tumorigenic but chromosomally abnormal, lymphoblastoid lines suggest that imbalance of the dosage of genes carried on chromosomes 7,8 and 9 may be important in determining the tumorigenic phenotype.