Jurkat T Cells are Immunophenotypically Distinct from T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cells Due to High-Level Surface Expression of CD5

Abstract

Human leukemic T cells show decreased surface CD5 (sCD5) and increased cytoplasmic CD5 (cCD5). When we examined their expressions in the Jurkat T cells, it showed increased sCD5 and decreased cCD5, which is in sharp contrast with the pattern of CD5 expression observed for human leukemic T cells. Furthermore, this opposite pattern was due to the absence of an exonal switch between E1A and E1B. This study suggests that Jurkat cell does not retain all characteristics of T-ALL cells; thus, we should carefully interpret the data obtained using Jurkat T cell as a model cell line of T-ALL.

Keywords:

• Acute T cell lymphoblastic leukemia
• surface CD5 (sCD5)
• cytoplasmic CD5 (cCD5)
• Jurkat T cell

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the patients and control subjects who volunteered to participate in this study. We also acknowledge Dr. Beenu Joshi, NJIL&OMD, Agra, India and Dr. C.P. Chaturvedi, SGPGIMS, Lucknow, India for providing Jurkat Cells (clone E6.1) whenever we required. We acknowledge Central Facility, Department of Biotechnology, M.N.N.I.T. Allahabad, Prayagraj India for allowing us to use the flowcytometry facility.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the support received from the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India (Ref. No.6242-P101/RGCB/PMD/DBT/AMKR/2015) and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science & Technology, Government of India to KS (Ref No. SRG/2020/001646).