Natural killer cells have been shown to be relevant in the recognition and lysis of acute myeloid leukemia. In childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, it was shown that HLA I expression and KIR receptor-ligand mismatch significantly impact ALL cytolysis. We characterized 14 different primary childhood AML blasts by flow cytometry including NKG2D ligands. Further HLA I typing of blasts was perfo...

To determine the levels of maturation and differentiation of murine CD4 single-positive (SP) T cells, we compared the secondary responses of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA)-induced neonatal thymic, adult thymic and adult splenic CD4 SP T cell blasts prepared from whole or heat-stable antigen(low) CD4 SP T cells. Proliferative responses upon re-stimulation with SEA were strong in adult spleni...

We have determined whether B cells previously activated by anti-Ig (anti-Ig blasts) are responsive to lymphokines that induce isotype switching. Culture of anti-Ig blasts with a mixture of lymphokines, including BSF-1, resulted in marked secretion of IgM and IgG1, but not other IgG isotypes. The IgG1 response of anti-Ig blasts to lymphokines was 13-fold greater than was observed with splenic B ...

The frequency and clinical significance of acute leukemia displaying both lymphoid and myeloid characteristics was determined in 123 consecutive children using a panel of lineage-associated markers. The leukemic blasts from 18 of 95 children (19%) with the diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by standard diagnostic criteria expressed myeloid-associated cell surface antigens. Despite ...

One of three splenic B cells of 2- to 3-mo-old C57BL/6J or C3H/Tif mice are activated either by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or by lipoprotein (LP) to grow and to mature to IgM-secreting cells. When mitogen-activated blast cells, after a 2-d activation period, are separated from nonactivated, small cells by velocity sedimentation, and no mitogen is readded, the blasts do not continue to grow but do...

Severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice were injected intravenously with 5 x 10(6) primary bone marrow (BM) blasts from newly diagnosed patients with E2A-PBX1 fusion transcript positive t(1;19)(q23;p13) pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). A marked variation existed in the pattern and extent of leukemic cell engraftment in SCID mice challenged with t(1;19) pre-B ALL blasts. Blasts from...

With this issue of the JCI, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Journal. While 80 years is not a century, we still feel it is important to honor what the JCI has meant to the biomedical research community for 8 decades. To illustrate why the JCI is the leading general-interest translational research journal edited by and for biomedical researchers, we have asked former JCI editors-in-chief...