Further evidence for the existence of ‘homing’ receptors on murine leukemia cells which mediate adherence to normal bone marrow stromal cells

A significant proportion of ¹³¹IUDR-labelled cells from murine leukemia cell lines L1210 and P388, but not the L5178Y lymphoma cell line, are retained in the bone marrow (B.M.) following i.v. injection into syngeneic mice. Following this, L1210 and P388 cells grow and rapidly replace the normal hematopoietic cells of the B.M. L1210 and P388 cells, but not several lymphoma cell lines, also bind avidly to monolayers of B.M. stromal cells (Dexter cultures) and soon overgrow the cultures following rapid cell proliferation. P388 cells bound equally well to confluent monolayers of B.M., whole mouse embryo and newborn mouse kidney while L1210 cells bound well to B.M. and whole mouse embryo but showed little binding to newborn kidney monolayers. The accumulation of the two leukemia cell lines in the B.M. was constant and indistinguishable over a 48-h period. In contrast, in both spleen and liver the number of L1210 cells decreased during the same period while P388 cells were retained at a constant level. Generally there was a lack of correlation of B.M. metastasis of a cell line and its metastasis to other organs although P388 cells, but not L1210 cells, demonstrated a tremendous capacity for metastatic growth in both spleen and liver.

Normal B.M. cells were fused with the syngeneic SP2/0 murine myeloma fusor line and 10 hybridomas plus the SP2/0 parent were tested for in-vitro adherence to B.M. monolayers and in-vivo metastatic behavior. The same 3 (out of 10) hybridomas showed a high level of adherence to B.M. monolayers, high levels of retention of cells in the B.M. following i.v. injection, and rapid growth and takeover of the normal B.M. In marked contrast, neither the SP2/0 parent nor the remaining 7 hybridomas show significant adherence, B.M. retention or growth in the B.M. A distinct lack of correlation of B.M. vs liver or spleen metastasis was once again noted for the hybridomas although all of the hybridomas showed much less metastatic growth in the liver than the SP2/0 parent. Seven out of 10 hybridomas also showed less metastatic growth in the spleen including all 3 of the hybridomas which showed preferential growth in the B.M.

Our data are consistent with the existence of cell surface ‘homing’ receptors on leukemia cells for normal B.M. stromal cells which function to retain the leukemia cells in the B.M. Such receptors might serve as functional markers for cell differentiation and leukemia classification.