Hairy-cell leukemia is a B-cell tumor in which IFN-~has recently been shown to have a clear antitumor effect. In order to elucidate the action of IFN in HCL we studied the the effect of human recombinant IFN-alpha-2 on purified peripheral blood hairy cells and a hairy cell leukemia line(HCL-1). Since IFN can promote cell differentiation of various tumor cell lines, morphological and immunophenotypic differentiating effects were studied in detail. In the presence of IFN-~ the leukemic hairy cells lost most of their typical villous membrane projections and became nonadherent to glass and plastic surfaces. Surface marker analysis was carried out using the monoclonal antibodies FMC-7, OKlal, Leu-M3, anti-Tac, T015, BMA 030, and Lyt3, Reactivity with the monoclonals Lyt3 and BMA 030 was found to be induced by IFN. In contrast, IL-2 receptor expression was down-regulated by IFN treatment. From these results we conclude that IFN-alpha-2 exerts a profound differen tiating action on hairy cells in vitro.
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