Mouse Model Developed for Human B-Cell Lymphoma

After developing a mouse model overexpressing the TCL1 gene from human B cell lymphomas, investigators showed that TCL1 is a powerful oncogene that, when overexpressed in both B and T cells, predominantly produced mature B cell lymphomas. Their findings were reported in the October 29, 2002, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Previous studies had identified an abnormality in the gene called T cell leukemia 1 (TCL1) in patients with B cell lymphomas, especially in those suffering from AIDS. Researchers from the Jonsson Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (USA; www.ucla.edu) inserted the TCL1 gene into a mouse line. They found that the transgenic mice developed Burkitt-like lymphoma (BLL) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with attendant Bcl-6 expression and mutated JH gene segments at a very high penetrance beginning at four months of age. In contrast, only one mouse developed a T cell malignancy, at 15 months.

"What we can do now is grow cell lines out of this model to determine which cancer-causing companion mutations arise,” said senior author Dr. Mike Teitell, a physician and researcher at the Jonsson Cancer Center. "This model appears to yield a large spectrum of mature B cell lymphomas.”




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