Establishment And Characterization Of A Novel 'Double-Hit' Follicular Lymphoma Cell Line, Fl-Sjc

About 5 per cent of follicular lymphoma (FL) cases are double-hit (DH) lymphomas. Double-hit follicular lymphoma (DHFL) cell lines can improve our understanding and drug development on FL. But there are only few DHFL cell lines. Here, we established a new MYC/BCL2 DHFL cell line, FL-SJC. The cells were obtained from the hydrothorax of a patient with MYC/BCL2 DHFL and cultured for 140 passages in vitro. FL-SJC cells demonstrated CD19(++), CD20(+), CD22(++), HLA-DR+, CD10(+), CD38(+), Lambda(+) CD23(-), CD5(-) and Kappa(-). The chromosome karyotypic analysis confirmed the co-existence of t(8;22)(q24;q11) and t(14;18)(q32;q21), as well as additional abnormalities involving chromosomes 2 and 3. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis (FISH) showed IGH/BCL2 fusion gene and the MYC rearrangement. In addition, the FL-SJC cells displayed KMT2D/MLL2 and CREBBP gene mutations. After subcutaneous inoculation of FL-SJC cells, the SCID mice developed solid tumour masses within 6-8 weeks. FL-SJC cells were proven to be free of Epstein-Barr (EB) virus infection and be multidrug-resistant. In a conclusion, the FL-SJC cell line has been identified as a novel MYC/BCL2 double-hit follicular lymphoma that can be used as a potentially available tool for the clinical and basic research, together with the drug development for MYC/BCL2 DHFL.