Establishment and Characterization of Leukemic T-Cell Lines, B-Cell Lines, and Null-Cell Line: a Progress Report on Surface Antigen Study of Fresh Lymphatic Leukemias in Man

Abstract
In 1971, Minowada et al. (20) established a set of leukemic lymphoid cell lines designated as MOLT 1–4 from a patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The most striking feature which was associated with cell membrane of the MOLT cells was non-immune rosette-formation with erythrocytes of sheep, goat, pig and horse. This study has led to two significant contributions: 1. the non-immune rosettes which are now refered to as E rosettes, are indeed a cell surface marker for human thymus-derived lymphocytes (T-cells) and 2. a question whether or not all cases of ALL represent E+-ALL (T-cell leukemia).