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. 1975 Oct 1;142(4):998–1010. doi: 10.1084/jem.142.4.998

Alteration of immunoglobulin phenotype in cell culture-adapted lines of two mouse plasmacytomas

PMCID: PMC2189950  PMID: 51902

Abstract

Murine plasmacytomas can be adapted to continuous in vitro culture by alternate passage between culture and animal. We have found that the kinetics of adaptation reflect a selection for the growth of variant plasmacytoma cells. The inclusion of an altered immunoglobulin phenotype in such variant cells could explain the Ig-producing variants that we observed in two of six transplantable lines of plasmacytomas that were adapted to culture. The first variant, an IgM-producing cell line (104-76), was adapted from a transplanted line of MOPC 104E that had stopped producing IgM with binding specificity for alpha1-3 Dextran. Unlike MOPC 104E, the IgM of 104-76 contains kappa- instead of lambda-light chains and probably contains an altered or different mu- heavy chain. A second variant (352-57) was found in an IgG2b-producing tumor (MOPC 352) which was induced in a BALB/c mouse strain (CB-6) that carried Ig genes of the C57BL/Ka allotype. This cell line apparently switched from producing IgG2b molecules of the C57BL allotype (H9) and of a known idiotype to IgG1 molecules of the BALB/c allotype (F19) without the idiotype marker. The propagation of a biclonal plasmacytoma from the time of original tumor induction does not appear as a likely explanation for these results. Rather, we seem to be dealing with plasmacytoma variants or with the possible induction of secondary tumors of host origin.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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