60
Immunology Today, voL 5, No, 3, 1984
Employment opportunities in industry
Promega Biotec 2800 S Fish Hatchery Road Madison WI 53711 USA
Where the jobs have been (II)
Ribi lmmunoChem Research lnc PO Box 1409 Hamilton M T 59840 USA
The following firms have since 1982 recruited staff with experience of immunology or immunological techniques. They are additions to the list published last year (lmmunol. Today. 1983, Vol. 4, p. 139) except for Monotech Laboratories Ltd and Ribi ImmunoChem Research Inc, whose addresses were previously given inaccurately.
Sdavo SpA via Fiorentina 1 53100 Siena Italy
Seward Laboratory
BioStar Medical Products lnc
CooperBiomedical Inc
Interferon Sciences lnc
1995 North 57 Court Flatirons Industrial Park Boulder CO 80301 USA
Diagnostics Division 1 Technology Court Malvern PA 19355 USA
783 Jersey Avenue New Brunswick NJ 08901 USA
Biosyntech
Difeo Laboratories
Microgenics Corporation
Biochemische Synthesetechnik GmbH and Co Stresemannstrasse 268-280 D-2000 Hamburg 50 FRG
PO Box 1050 Detroit MI 48232 USA
2341 Stanwell Drive Concord CA 94520 USA
California Biotechnology lnc
Genetic Engineering Inc
2450 Bayshore Frontage Road Mountain View CA 94043 USA
PO Box 33554 Denver CO 80233 USA
Molecular Diagnostics Inc
Cambridge BioScience Corporation
Gilford Instrument Laboratories Inc
35 South Street Hopkinton MA 01740 USA
132 Artino Street Oberlin OH 44074 USA
UAC House Blackfriars Road London SE1 9UG UK
TechAmerica Group lnc Research Center PO Box 2211 Fort Collins CO 80522 USA
Unicet
Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and normal B lymphopoiesis SIR, As authors of"papers at the heart of the current debate on the nature of the neoplastic B lymphocyte in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), we would like to contribute to the discussion on this topic (Immunol. Today, 1982, Vol. 3, pp. 343-348; and 1983, Vol. 4, pp. 101-103). The relevant findings reported from our laboratory are as follows: 1. CLL cells which express IgM and IgD often have detectable IgG on the cell surface. The nature of such IgG had been a matter of controversy for some time, but we were able to show for the five cases investigated with antiidiotypic antibody that the IgM and IgD were idiotypic but that the IgG was not 1. We did not concern ourselves with the rather rare cases of CLL (3/100 in our series) which both express and secrete IgG since these clearly form a different group. 2. For the typical cases of CLL our studies of the patterns of export of Ig demonstrated that monotypic lightchain export is the most common feature of such cells2 but that small
400 Morgan Lane West Haven CT 06516 USA
© 1984,ElsevierSciencePublishersB.V., Amsterdam 0167- 49191841502.00
Unilever Research Laboratory
Monotech Laboratories Limited 155 St Vincent Street Glasgow G2 5PA UK
amounts of pentameric IgM are also frequently found 3. It should be emphasized that these results have been reported for isolated peripheral blood neoplastic B lymphocytes and are not simply deduced from the finding of pentameric idiotypic IgM in patients' plasma, as was suggested by the comments of Kumararatne and Ling (Immunol, Today, 1983, 4, 101). By the criteria of surface Ig expression and patterns of export of Ig, therefore, CLL appears to be a relatively homogeneous disease. However, CLL is only a part of the spectrum of neoplastic disease involving B lymphocytes and to assign a place for it in the differentiation sequence it is necessary to examine cells from B-cell tumours of different histological types. This we have done and on the basis of results reported+ have put forward the hypothesis that as a B cell matures the ratio of light to heavy chains in the exported Ig decreases towards unity i.e. immature cells export an excess of light chains. It must be conceded that neoplastic plasma cells exporting light chains in excess represent an oddity in such a sequence and it remains to be seen if such cells have normal counterparts or whether they represent mutational changes. B lymphocytes which export light chains in excess have been sought and found in developing lymphoid tissues such as foetal liver5, and also in some cases of hypogammaglobulinaemia6, suggesting that normal analogues of
27 Chemin des peupliers BP 11 69572 Dardilly France
Immunology Division Colworth House Sharnbrook Bedfordshire MK44 1 L Q U K
such cells exist and are probably at an immature stage of development. In summary, a study of CLL alone will not allow us to draw many conclusions about B-cell differentiation. There are undoubtedly many pathways involved, not necessarily along a single sequence, which require evaluation. However, we consider that the analysis of patterns of secretion of Ig by unstimulated neoplastic B lymphocytes and their normal counterparts will help us to unravel this question. F. K. STEVENSON J. L. SMITH
University of Southampton Lymphoma Research Unit, Tenovus Research Laboratory, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton S09 4XY, UK. References 1 2 3 4 5 6
Stevenson, F. K., Hamblin, T. J. and Stevenson, G. T. (1981)J. Exp. Med. 154, 1965 Gordon,J., Howlett,A. R. and Smith,J. L. (1978) Immunology34, 397 Stevenson,F. K., Hamblin, T. J., Stevenson, G. T. and Tutt, A. L. (1980)J. Exp. Med. 152, 1484 Hannam-Harris, A. C., Gordon, J. and Smith, J. L. (1980)J. Immunol. 125,2177 Hannam-Harris, A. C. and Smith, ]. L. (1981) Immunology43, 417 Gordon,J. and Smith,J. L. (1978) Clin. Exp. Immunol. 34, 288
Editors note: We apologize to Dr Stevenson and Dr Smith for an unwarranted delay in the publication of this letter.
Immunology Today, voL 5, No, 3, 1984
Employment opportunities in industry
Promega Biotec 2800 S Fish Hatchery Road Madison WI 53711 USA
Where the jobs have been (II)
Ribi lmmunoChem Research lnc PO Box 1409 Hamilton M T 59840 USA
The following firms have since 1982 recruited staff with experience of immunology or immunological techniques. They are additions to the list published last year (lmmunol. Today. 1983, Vol. 4, p. 139) except for Monotech Laboratories Ltd and Ribi ImmunoChem Research Inc, whose addresses were previously given inaccurately.
Sdavo SpA via Fiorentina 1 53100 Siena Italy
Seward Laboratory
BioStar Medical Products lnc
CooperBiomedical Inc
Interferon Sciences lnc
1995 North 57 Court Flatirons Industrial Park Boulder CO 80301 USA
Diagnostics Division 1 Technology Court Malvern PA 19355 USA
783 Jersey Avenue New Brunswick NJ 08901 USA
Biosyntech
Difeo Laboratories
Microgenics Corporation
Biochemische Synthesetechnik GmbH and Co Stresemannstrasse 268-280 D-2000 Hamburg 50 FRG
PO Box 1050 Detroit MI 48232 USA
2341 Stanwell Drive Concord CA 94520 USA
California Biotechnology lnc
Genetic Engineering Inc
2450 Bayshore Frontage Road Mountain View CA 94043 USA
PO Box 33554 Denver CO 80233 USA
Molecular Diagnostics Inc
Cambridge BioScience Corporation
Gilford Instrument Laboratories Inc
35 South Street Hopkinton MA 01740 USA
132 Artino Street Oberlin OH 44074 USA
UAC House Blackfriars Road London SE1 9UG UK
TechAmerica Group lnc Research Center PO Box 2211 Fort Collins CO 80522 USA
Unicet
Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and normal B lymphopoiesis SIR, As authors of"papers at the heart of the current debate on the nature of the neoplastic B lymphocyte in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), we would like to contribute to the discussion on this topic (Immunol. Today, 1982, Vol. 3, pp. 343-348; and 1983, Vol. 4, pp. 101-103). The relevant findings reported from our laboratory are as follows: 1. CLL cells which express IgM and IgD often have detectable IgG on the cell surface. The nature of such IgG had been a matter of controversy for some time, but we were able to show for the five cases investigated with antiidiotypic antibody that the IgM and IgD were idiotypic but that the IgG was not 1. We did not concern ourselves with the rather rare cases of CLL (3/100 in our series) which both express and secrete IgG since these clearly form a different group. 2. For the typical cases of CLL our studies of the patterns of export of Ig demonstrated that monotypic lightchain export is the most common feature of such cells2 but that small
400 Morgan Lane West Haven CT 06516 USA
© 1984,ElsevierSciencePublishersB.V., Amsterdam 0167- 49191841502.00
Unilever Research Laboratory
Monotech Laboratories Limited 155 St Vincent Street Glasgow G2 5PA UK
amounts of pentameric IgM are also frequently found 3. It should be emphasized that these results have been reported for isolated peripheral blood neoplastic B lymphocytes and are not simply deduced from the finding of pentameric idiotypic IgM in patients' plasma, as was suggested by the comments of Kumararatne and Ling (Immunol, Today, 1983, 4, 101). By the criteria of surface Ig expression and patterns of export of Ig, therefore, CLL appears to be a relatively homogeneous disease. However, CLL is only a part of the spectrum of neoplastic disease involving B lymphocytes and to assign a place for it in the differentiation sequence it is necessary to examine cells from B-cell tumours of different histological types. This we have done and on the basis of results reported+ have put forward the hypothesis that as a B cell matures the ratio of light to heavy chains in the exported Ig decreases towards unity i.e. immature cells export an excess of light chains. It must be conceded that neoplastic plasma cells exporting light chains in excess represent an oddity in such a sequence and it remains to be seen if such cells have normal counterparts or whether they represent mutational changes. B lymphocytes which export light chains in excess have been sought and found in developing lymphoid tissues such as foetal liver5, and also in some cases of hypogammaglobulinaemia6, suggesting that normal analogues of
27 Chemin des peupliers BP 11 69572 Dardilly France
Immunology Division Colworth House Sharnbrook Bedfordshire MK44 1 L Q U K
such cells exist and are probably at an immature stage of development. In summary, a study of CLL alone will not allow us to draw many conclusions about B-cell differentiation. There are undoubtedly many pathways involved, not necessarily along a single sequence, which require evaluation. However, we consider that the analysis of patterns of secretion of Ig by unstimulated neoplastic B lymphocytes and their normal counterparts will help us to unravel this question. F. K. STEVENSON J. L. SMITH
University of Southampton Lymphoma Research Unit, Tenovus Research Laboratory, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton S09 4XY, UK. References 1 2 3 4 5 6
Stevenson, F. K., Hamblin, T. J. and Stevenson, G. T. (1981)J. Exp. Med. 154, 1965 Gordon,J., Howlett,A. R. and Smith,J. L. (1978) Immunology34, 397 Stevenson,F. K., Hamblin, T. J., Stevenson, G. T. and Tutt, A. L. (1980)J. Exp. Med. 152, 1484 Hannam-Harris, A. C., Gordon, J. and Smith, J. L. (1980)J. Immunol. 125,2177 Hannam-Harris, A. C. and Smith, ]. L. (1981) Immunology43, 417 Gordon,J. and Smith,J. L. (1978) Clin. Exp. Immunol. 34, 288
Editors note: We apologize to Dr Stevenson and Dr Smith for an unwarranted delay in the publication of this letter.
