These two lines are listed as myeloma or plasma cell but there is no real evidence that either authentic myeloma lines. KE97 was initially isolated from a stomach cancer but subsequent analysis determined it was a B-lymphoblastoid line based on sequence analysis demonstrating BCR rearrrangement. HUNS1 was originally misclassified as myeloma but is also really B-lymphoblastoid. I did a quick comparison of gene expression of these two lines with two authentic myeloma cell lines using the Expression_22Q2+_public dataset. The one cell line, MM1S has been shown to be most similar to patient samples in a recent study (PMID 32123307) and a second line, OCI-MY5 that is an authentic myeloma line, but like some freshly isolated patient samples, expresses some, but not all B cell markers (PMID 33649772). As seen in the heat map attached below, expression of select B cell markers occurs in OCI-MY5 but is much higher and more uniform in KE97 and HUNS1. In contrast plasma cell markers are much lower or absent in these two lines. Similarly, the B cell transcription factor PAX5 is only found in KE97 and HUNS1 while the plasma cell transcription factor is only in the authentic myeloma lines. Expression and dependency on these transcription factors clearly discriminates KE97 from HUNS1 (attached). Therefore the inclusion of these lines in the myeloma or plasma cell group should be reconsidered.
Thanks,
Larry Boise
