title: Pre-B cells in kappa-transgenic mice.
abstract: Recent experiments have shown that the microinjected kappa-chain gene of transgenic mice is expressed in a tissue-specific fashion only in B lymphocytes. The next step was to determine whether, within the B-lymphocyte lineage, the kappa-chain gene was expressed in a normal developmental fashion. Normally, only mu heavy(H)-chain genes, and not kappa-chain genes, are expressed in pre-B cells. To obtain cloned cell lines derived from early cells of the B-cell lineage, we transformed bone marrow cells from kappa-transgenic mice with Abelson murine leukaemia virus (A-MuLV) and tested the resultant cell lines for the retention of the kappa transgene and its expression in RNA and protein. We found that cells with the pre-B phenotype exist in kappa-transgenic mice. We further observed that in A-MuLV-transformed cell lines from a kappa-transgenic mouse with a high copy number of the transgene, the proportion of cell lines expressing kappa (transgenic kappa) was higher than in cell lines from normal or low copy number transgenic mice.
mesh_terms: D000011:Abelson murine leukemia virus; D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D001402:B-Lymphocytes; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells; D002460:Cell Line; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D007148:Immunoglobulin mu-Chains / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D010641:Phenotype; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D007147:Immunoglobulin Light Chains; D007145:Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains; D007148:Immunoglobulin mu-Chains; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D004247:DNA