Malignant CD5 B cells obtained from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) were analyzed for immunoglobulin variable gene usage, CD5 gene expression and autoantibody production. A statistically significant biased usage of the VH5, VH6 and VKIII immunoglobulin variable gene families was observed. It is important to point out that both VH5 and VH6 are extremely small families which are located at the 3' extremity of the immunoglobulin variable gene locus. We determined that the transcription of the CD5 gene in T cell malignancies, CLL, SLL and a selected group of EBV transformed lines was identical. Autoantibody production was studied in a panel of heterohybridomas obtained by the fusion of CLL cells with mouse myeloma line SP2/0. A large fraction of these heterohybridomas secrete autoantibodies; some were monospecific, some bispecific and some polyspecific.