Biochemical and immunochemical analysis of gangliosides of human small cell lung carcinoma: production of monoclonal antibodies against a unique marker of small cell lung carcinoma, ganglioside Fuc GM1.

Immunization of mice with a pure preparation of the ganglioside adsorbed on Salmonella typhimurium and hybridization of splenocytes with myeloma P3-X63-Ag 8.653 have resulted in hybridomas producing monoclonal antibodies against ganglioside Fuc GM1, a marker of human small cell lung carcinoma. Characterization of four hybridomal clones and data on the antigenic specificity of the monoclonal antibodies are given. All four monoclonal antibodies reacted only with Fuc GM1 in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In radioimmunodetection of the antigen on thin-layer plates, two of the four monoclonal antibodies gave cross-reactions with Fuc GD1b. The obtained monoclonal antibodies have revealed the presence of Fuc GM1 in all seven cases of small cell lung carcinoma we have studied and the absence of Fuc GM1 in the normal human lung tissue and in lung adenocarcinomas.