Establishment and Characterization of Human B-Cell Lymphoma Cell Lines Using B-Cell Growth Factor

B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL-B) have been diffi-cult to establish in long-term cell culture using standard techniques. We report the establishment of five represen-tative cell lines from high grade NHL-B using B-cell growth factor (BCGF). The five NHL-B cell lines display the morpho-logic, immunophenotypic, genotypic, and biologic character-istics of the lymphoma cells present in the original diagnos-tic specimen. The cell lines showed at least a sevenfold dose-dependent increase in proliferation in vitro over background in the presence of BCGF. Other putative B-cell growth-stimulating cytokines showed no significant prolif-erative activity or were inhibitory in some cases. NHL-B cell lines secreted growth factor(s) into culture supernatants HE NON-HODGKIN’S lymphomas (NHL) are a het- T erogeneous group of human lymphoid neoplasms, prin-cipally derived (40%) from the B-lymphoid lineage (NHL