A Detailed Protocol for Characterizing the Murine C1498 Cell Line and its Associated Leukemia Mouse Model

The intravenous injection of C1498 cells into syngeneic or congenic mice has been performed since 1941. These injections result in the development of acute leukemia. However, the nature of this disease has not been well documented in the literature. Here, we provide a technical protocol for characterizing C1498 cells in vitro and for determining the nature of the induced leukemia in vivo. The first part of this procedure is focused on determining the hematopoietic lineage and the stage of differentiation of cultured C1498 cells. To achieve this, multi-parametric flow cytometric staining is used to detect hematopoietic cell markers. Immunofluorescence microscopy, cytochemistry and a May-Grünwald Giemsa staining are then performed to assess the expression of myeloperoxidase, the activity of esterases and cellular morphology, respectively. The second part of this protocol is dedicated to describing the leukemia disease that is induced in vivo. The latter can be achieved by determining the frequencies of leukemic and inherent cells in the blood, hematopoietic organs (e.g., bone marrow and spleen) and non-lymphoid tissues (e.g., the liver and lungs) using specific staining and flow cytometry analyses. The nature of the leukemia is then confirmed using May-Grünwald Giemsa staining and staining for specific esterases in the bone marrow. Here, we present the results that were obtained using this protocol in age-matched C1498- and PBS-injected mice.