Induction of murine CD5 expression by v‐H‐ras

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Abstract
The murine CD5 surface antigen is a frequent marker on B‐lineage cell lines produced from bone marrow infected with retroviruses expressing v‐H‐ras. Since CD5+ B cells cannot be detected in adult murine bone marrow, either the viral targets of transformation are a minor contaminating population of CD5+ B‐lineage cells or the v‐H‐ras oncogene is inducing the expression of CD5 on B‐lineage cells not previously expressing this marker. We have found that v‐H‐ras can induce the expression of CD5 on two CD5− pre‐B‐cell lines established from murine bone marrow. This induction correlates with increased steady‐state levels of CD5 mRNA. These results present the possibility that CD5 expression may be modulated by specific signalling as well as early lineage commitment.