Human Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines. II. Cytogenetic Studies

Abstract

Cytogenetic studies were undertaken on 14 human lymphoblastoid cell lines. Four were eneupleld, all from elderly patients with malignant disease, and eight from young patients with infectious mono-nucleosis were diploid. It is uncertain whether the age or the diagnosis of the donor is the important factor in determining the karyotype of an established line. The evidence suggests that aneuploidy usually arises in vitro from an inoculum of diploid cells. The modal karyotype of a mass culture changes by the emergence of a clone growing more rapidly than the parent line. The “marker C” chromosomes, described by ethers, was not found in any of 12 lines initiated in the authors' laboratory but was present in 89% of divisions in a line obtained from another center. There is no good evidence for the recurrence of any other specific chromosome aberration in different cell lines.