Establishment and characterization of two human myeloma cell lines secreting kappa light chains

A small number of human myelomas have been established as long term cultured cell lines. We report the characteristics of two new cell lines, designated SK-MM-1 and SK-MM-2, derived from 73 attempts to culture myeloma specimens. Both cell lines were grown from myeloma patients with hypogammaglobulinemia, kappa light chain proteinuria, and plasma cell leukemia. SK-MM-1 and SK-MM-2 had a plasmacytoid morphology, grew in RPMI complete medium with doubling times of 32 and 60 hr, respectively, and did not express Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen. Both cell lines secreted kappa light chains (0.9 and 1.1 micrograms/10(6) cells/ml per 48 hr for SK-MM-1 and SK-MM-2, respectively) but no heavy chains. SK-MM-1 and SK-MM-2 expressed the pan-B cell marker B1 and the late B cell/plasma cell marker BL3. In addition, SK-MM-2 expressed late B cell/plasma cell markers OKT10 and PCA-1. Neither cell line expressed T lymphocyte, myeloid, or early B lymphocyte markers. The presence of distinctive kappa and heavy chain gene rearrangements supported the clonal origin of both cell lines from kappa light chain-producing B cells. The two cell lines were markedly aneuploid and both carried a 14q+ marker chromosome. Human myeloma cell lines lacking heavy chain secretion may be useful to elucidate mechanisms of immunoglobulin gene regulation and to construct human-human hybridomas.