Jurkat cells are animmortalized line of humanT lymphocyte cells that are used to study acute T cellleukemia,T cell signaling, and the expression of variouschemokine receptors susceptible to viral entry, particularlyHIV.^[1] Jurkat cells can, upon stimulation byphytohaemagglutinin (PHA) or other stimulants such as phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA or simplyphorbol), expressinterleukin 2, and are used in research involving the susceptibility of cancers to drugs and radiation. However in the general case chronicphytohaemagglutinin kills Jurkat cells, though Jurkat clones can be devised which resist PHA-induced killing. The object of the system is that Jurkat cells can react to a signal and their expression can be measured. Jurkat cells with elements missing or knocked out can then provide a basis for examining the importance of that element on the expression ofinterleukin 2.

The Jurkat cell line (originally called JM) was established in the mid-1970s from theperipheral blood of a 14-year-old boy with T cell leukemia.^[2][3] Different derivatives of the Jurkat cell line that have been mutated to lack certain genes can now be obtained from cell culture banks.^[4]

• TheJCaM1.6 cell line is deficient inLck activity due to the deletion of part of theLCK gene (exon 7) from theLCKtranscript.
• J.RT3-T3.5 cells have a mutation in theT cell receptor beta chain locus precluding expression of this chain. This affects the cells in several ways; they do not express surfaceCD3 or produce the T cell receptor alpha/betaheterodimer. Since they are deficient in the TCR complex, these cells are a useful tool for transfection studies using T cell receptor alpha and beta chain genes and are widely used in labs in whichT cell receptor gene transfer technologies are studied.
• TheI 9.2 and I 2.1 cell lines. The I 2.1 cell line is functionally defective forFADD and the I 9.2 cell line is functionally defective forcaspase-8, both defective molecules being essential toapoptosis ornecroptosis of cells.
• TheD1.1 cell line does not express theCD4 molecule, an importantco-receptor in the activation pathway ofhelper T cells.
• The J.gamma1 subline contains no detectablephospholipase C-gamma1 (PLC-γ1) protein and therefore has profound defects in T cell receptor (TCR)calcium mobilization and activation of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT, an importanttranscription factor in T cells).
• J-Lat contains integrated but transcriptionally latent HIV proviruses, in whichGFP replacesnef coding sequence, and a frameshift mutation inenv.
• E6-1 cells express large amounts ofinterleukin 2 after stimulation withphorbol esters and eitherlectins ormonoclonal antibodies against the T3antigen (both types of stimulants are needed to induceinterleukin 2 expression.

Jurkat E6-1 cells have been found to produce axenotropic murine leukemia virus (X-MLV) (referred to asXMRV) that could potentially affect experimental outcomes. There is no evidence that this virus can infect humans. This infection may also change the virulence and tropism of the virus by way of phenotypic mixing and/or recombination.^[5]

• Jurkat Cells at the U.S. National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings (MeSH)
• Cellosaurus entry for Jurkat

• Human cell lines
• Cellular senescence

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata