 The Jurkat cell line (originally called JM) was established in the late 1970s from the peripheral blood of a 14-year-old boy with T cell leukemia.Different derivatives of the Jurkat cell line that have been mutated to lack certain genes can now be obtained from cell culture banks.Jurkat J6 cells have been found to produce a xenotropic murine leukemia virus (X-MLV) (referred to as XMRV) that could potentially affect experimental outcomes.