Human Leukemia-Lymphoma Associated Antigen Detected by Heteroantisera

Abstract

The identification of tumor-specific antigens on leukemia cells would facilitate the diagnosis and possibly the treatment of the disease. To detect such antigens, one widely used approach has been to raise antibodies in animals against leukemia cells or leukemia cell extracts. Although many variations of this approach have been used previously, in most cases the antisera produced have not been unequivocally shown to be leukemia specific. The more recent tests used to determine the specificity of the antisera have been more discriminating and some progress has been made. The tests used must be sensitive, capable of screening a large variety of cells, and able to detect small subfractions of positive cells. In our studies these critera were applied to the two main tests used to determine antiserum specificity. Complement-dependent microcytotoxicity was used to screen large numbers of normal and leukemic cells, and the immunofluorescent staining technique was used to detect small subpopulations of positive cells. The latter technique was essential for locating positive cells in heterogeneous populations such as bone marrow samples or peripheral blood lymphocyte preparations.