Selective growth of T lymphocytes occurred when unfractionated normal human bone marrow cells were cultured with conditioned medium obtained from phytohemagglutinin-stimulated normal human lymphocytes (Ly-CM). Cultures of up to 90 percent T cells have been maintained for more than 9 months. The T cells exhibited a strict growth dependence upon Ly-CM and were consistently negative for Epstein-Barr viral information.
In earlier studies we identified a putative repressor of the human -globin gene, termed beta protein 1 (BP1), which binds to two silencer DNA sequences upstream of the adult human -globin gene and to a negative
We have previously reported that certain genes of the HOX2 cluster of homeobox genes on human chromosome 17 are specifically expressed in human leukemic cell lines with erythroid potential, suggesting that these genes are involved in hematopoietic differentiation. We now show that the expression of the HOX 2.2 gene decreases during erythropoietin‐induced differentiation of the erythroid cell line MB02. In order to study the role of the HOX 2.2 homeobox gene in hematopoiesis, vectors producing sense or antisense transcripts were introduced into K562 and HEL cells, pluripotent lines with erythroid and myeloid features. Overexpression of HOX 2.2 is associated with loss of erythroid features in both lines and an increase in certain myelomonocytic markers in K562 cells. Expression of antisense HOX 2.2 is associated with an increase in erythroid features in HEL cells and a mild decrease in myeloid characteristics in K562 cells. Overexpression of the adjacent HOX 2.1 gene in K562 cells does not produce similar phenotype changes. These data demonstrate that modulation of a specific HOX 2 homeobox gene can change the phenotype of somatic cells and suggest that certain HOX 2 genes play a role in blood cell differentiation.
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