Established from pleural effusion of 53 year old female with chronic myelogenous leukaemia in terminal blast crisis. Population highly undifferentiated and of the granulocytic series. Can be used as a highly sensitive target for the in vitro natural killer assay. Recent studies have shown the K562 blasts are multipotential, hematopoietic malignant cells that spontaneously differentiate into recognisable progenitors of the erythrocyte, granulocyte and monocytic series. 
 
Cell Line Origin
Human Caucasian chronic myelogenous leukaemia