Two populations of splenic dendritic cells detected with M342, a new monoclonal to an intracellular antigen of interdigitating dendritic cells and some B lymphocytes.

A monoclonal has been isolated that labels an intracellular antigen in dendritic cells and some B cells. The M342 hamster immunoglobulin was selected because it stained cells in the periarterial sheaths of spleen, the deep cortex of lymph node, and the thymic medulla--the same regions in which one finds interdigitating cells, the presumptive in situ counterparts of isolated lymphoid dendritic cells. M342 labeled an antigen within granules of isolated dendritic cells, but only in cells that had been cultured for a day and not in fresh isolates. This extends recent findings that most freshly isolated spleen dendritic cells are located in the periphery of the white pulp nodule and may serve as precursors for the periarterial pool of interdigitating cells, the site for M342 staining in situ. By electron microscopic immunolabeling, the M342 antigen was found exclusively in a type of multivesicular body. M342 staining was not found in mononuclear phagocytes from blood and peritoneal cavity. Peritoneal B cells expressed M342+ granules, and upon appropriate stimulation splenic B cells developed reactive granules as well. We conclude that M342 is a strong marker for interdigitating cells. Its existence reveals intracellular specializations in the vacuolar system of antigen-presenting cells including subsets of dendritic cells.