¹Galli, S.J., ²Brooks, C.G., ¹Dvorak, A.M. and ¹Ishizaka, T.
¹Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and  ²Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, U.S.A.

Cell Immunol. 96: 223-230, 1985.
 

We recently reported that a cloned cell line with "natural killer (NK)-like" cytolytic function and prominent cytoplasmic granules also expressed large numbers of plasma membrane receptors (Fc epsilon R) which bound immunoglobulin E (IgE) with high affinity (S.J. Galli et al., 1982, Nature (London) 298, 288). We have now performed IgE-binding studies with 31 additional cloned cell lines exhibiting "NK-like" lytic activity (defined as the ability to kill YAC-1 lymphoma cells) and three antigen-specific cytotoxic-T-cell clones. One of the NK-like clones expressed a small number of Fc epsilon R (3.0 X 10(4)/cell) on one of the two occasions it was tested. None of the other clones, which were derived by several different approaches and which had a variety of surface glycoprotein phenotypes, expressed any detectable specific binding of IgE. By contrast, mast cell clones consistently expressed large numbers of Fc epsilon R. The expression of large numbers of high-affinity Fc epsilon R would appear to represent a very uncommon characteristic of NK-like cell lines isolated under conditions similar to those described in this report.