The elekctrokinetic surfaces of human cells of lymphoid origin and their ribonuclease susceptibility.

Abstract

Summary A comparison has been made of the electrophoretic mobilities of human peripheral lymphocytes, peripheral malignant cells from patients with acute and chronic leukemia, cultured “normal” lymphoblasts, and cultured cells derived from Burkitt9s tumors. No consistent differences were observed between the electrophoretic mobilities of the isolated but otherwise untreated cells. However, following incubation of the cells with ribonuclease A, their electrophoretic mobilities fell into two groups. The net surface negativity of the normal peripheral lymphocytes and cultured “normal” lymphoblasts were significantly reduced by exposure to the enzyme, whereas the surface negativity of the peripheral leukemic cells and the cultured cells derived from Burkitt tumors was not. These findings of different ribonuclease susceptibility may not be readily correlated with cell proliferation and may indicate surface differences between normal and malignant cells of lymphoid origin.