BLIN-3 (CVCL_QW47) — a three-month-old's KMT2A::AFF1 line used to show the pro-B to pre-B block can be pushed
also called B-lineage 3 · CVCL_QW47
BLIN-3 comes from a three-month-old girl with the index fusion. It was used in one of the few experiments that asked whether these cells are stuck at an early B-cell stage or can be pushed past it.
The same thing, for a scientist
BLIN-3 (CVCL_QW47) is a continuous B-lineage ALL line established from the bone marrow of a **3-month-old female**, carrying an explicit Cellosaurus KMT2A-AFF1 gene-fusion annotation. It was the subject of a Blood study of pro-B to pre-B development in MLL/AF4-expressing B-lineage ALL, i.e. an experiment aimed directly at the differentiation block that is this graph's central phenotype — and done in infant-derived human material rather than in a mouse or an older-child line. The Cellosaurus record is otherwise sparse: no omics, no karyotype, no co-lesions, three references.
Why a thin record is still worth an entry
The point of this beat is an inventory, and an inventory must record what is thin as well as what is rich. BLIN-3 is an infant-derived KMT2A::AFF1 line with a fusion annotation in Cellosaurus 2 and one substantive functional publication 1. It has no deposited transcriptome, no exome, no DepMap membership and no repository catalogue number, so obtaining it means contacting the originating laboratory at the University of Minnesota and hoping the stock survives.
That is the realistic state of most infant KMT2A::AFF1 material: it exists, it is documented, and it is not on a shelf you can order from.
| accession | CVCL_QW47 |
|---|---|
| resolved by | Cellosaurus accession lookup 2026-09-19; primary name read back as BLIN-3 |
| age at derivation | 3 months |
| infant derived | true |
| sex | Female |
| site | Bone marrow |
| lineage | B-precursor (pro-B) |
| fusion | KMT2A::AFF1 (Cellosaurus gene-fusion annotation, sourced to a review) |
| in depmap | false |
| crispr screen published | false |
| str profile recorded | false |
| obtainable | No repository catalogue number; originating laboratory only |
omics available
[]
- An unauthenticated line with no STR profile can be the wrong cells entirely; any result from it should be replicated in a line with a verified profile before it is believed.
- The only functional publication is 25 years old and predates the current understanding of the infant-specific transcriptional state, so its differentiation framing may be answering the wrong question.
- Does a viable BLIN-3 stock still exist, and would an STR profile match the original? For several lines in this inventory the answer is genuinely unknown.
- Does BLIN-3 carry the fetal gene-expression programme? At 3 months it is one of the youngest lines available and would be an informative point on that axis.
- E1strong confidence 4 of 5: Replicated in peer-reviewed work by more than one group.paper
BLIN-3 was used in a study of pro-B-cell to pre-B-cell development in B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukaemia expressing the MLL/AF4 fusion protein.
Pro-B-cell to pre-B-cell development in B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia expressing the MLL/AF4 fusion protein · Bertrand FE, Vogtenhuber C, Shah N, LeBien TW · Blood 2001What this evidence cannot show
Bibliographic record fetched from PubMed on 2026-09-19; abstract not read in full and the paper was not read. The attribution of BLIN-3 to this paper comes from the Cellosaurus record's reference list, not from reading the paper, so what BLIN-3 specifically contributed to that study is not established here.
Evidence that argues against this (1)
- A differentiation result obtained in 2001 in a single line predates every modern definition of the infant KMT2A::AFF1 transcriptional state, and in particular predates the finding that infant MLL-AF4 ALL maintains a fetal-specific gene-expression programme that childhood MLL-AF4 ALL does not. A pro-B/pre-B axis defined on adult bone-marrow B-cell development may not be the right axis for a leukaemia of fetal origin. Rice S et al. 2021
- E2established confidence 5 of 5: Multiple independent lines of evidence; treated as settled in the field.database
Cellosaurus accession CVCL_QW47 records BLIN-3 as a female human cancer cell line aged 3 months at sampling, derived in situ from bone marrow, with disease terms 'Childhood B acute lymphoblastic leukemia' and 'B acute lymphoblastic leukemia with t(v;11q23.3) MLL rearranged' and an explicit KMT2A-AFF1 gene-fusion annotation; the record lists no omics data and no DepMap membership.
Cellosaurus cell line BLIN-3 (CVCL_QW47) · Bairoch A, et al. (SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics) · Cellosaurus 2025What this evidence cannot show
Fetched by accession 2026-09-19. The fusion annotation is attributed to a 2004 review of MLL-altered haematopoietic cell lines (PMID 14671638), not to a primary junction-sequencing report of this line. No karyotype, STR profile or authentication data is recorded, so the line's identity has not been verified against a reference profile in the record.
Evidence that argues against this (1)
- A line with no STR profile in Cellosaurus is a line whose identity cannot be checked, and misidentification is the commonest defect in old leukaemia line collections. The authoritative review of MLL-rearranged haematopoietic lines exists precisely because many lines in circulation had to be re-typed. Drexler HG et al. 2004
- related to →KMT2A::AFF1 (MLL-AF4), t(4;11)(q21;q23)
Cellosaurus KMT2A-AFF1 annotation; 3-month-old donor
infant-derived KMT2A::AFF1 B-precursor line
pro-B to pre-B development in an MLL/AF4-expressing infant line