Jurkat cells (pronounced yūr′kat) are an immortalized line of T
lymphocyte cells that are used to study acute T cell leukemia, T
cell signaling, and the expression of various chemokine
receptors susceptible to viral entry, particularly HIV. Jurkat
cells are also useful in science because of their ability to
produce interleukin 2. Their primary use, however, is to
determine the mechanism of differential susceptibility of
cancers to drugs and radiation. 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 can now be obtained from
cell culture banks that have been mutated to lack certain genes.
Examples of derivatives  - The JCaM1.6 cell line is deficient in
Lck kinase activity due to the deletion of part of the lck gene
(exon 7) from the Lck transcript. - J.RT3-T3.5 cells have a
mutation in the T cell receptor beta chain locus precluding
expression of this chain. This affec