Abstract
NAKAE, S., TSUCHIYA, S., KATAMINE, S., KONNO, T. and TADA, K. Ecto-5'- Nucleotidase Activities in B Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines at Various Stages of Maturation. Tohoku J. exp. Med., 1983, 141 (3), 305-310 - B lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) at various stages of maturation, including possible precursor B cell lines without immunoglobulin (Ig) expression, pre-B cell-like LCL, and Ig-secreting LCL, were established from peripheral and bone marrow mononuclear cells of four patients with congenital agammaglobulinemia (CAG) by infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and estimated for their ecto-5'-nucleotidase (ecto-5'-NT, E.C. 3.1.3.5) activity. Ecto-5'-NT activities in Ig-secreting LCL derived from CAG patients fell into the same range of those in LCL derived from control subjects (from 7.3 to 33.0nmoles/hr/l06cells). When ecto-5'-NT activities of precursor B cell lines derived from the CAG patients were also compared with Ig-secreting LCL derived from control subjects, no significant difference in ecto-5'-NT activities was found among LCL with various Ig expression which might indicate various stages of B cell maturation. These results may suggest that ecto-5'-NT does not appear to be a biochemical marker of B cell maturation.
