Phenol-soluble nonhistone chromatin proteins in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

ABSTRACT

The altered gene expression seen in cancer could relate to differences in nonhistone chromatin proteins between normal and malignant tumor cells. Phenol-soluble nonhistone chromatin proteins were isolated from human normal and leukemic (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) B-cells, as well as long-term cultured human B-lymphocyte cell lines. High-resolution two-dimensional electrophoretic maps identified a group of three nuclear proteins with a molecular weight of 45,000 to 50,000 and an isoelectric range of 4.5 to 4.7, which were associated only with the human leukemic B-cells. Leukemic B-cells and cultured B-cell lines also expressed a variant form of nuclear actin and tubulin.