Possible effects of non-HLA antibodies in common typing sera on HLA antigen frequency data in leukemia.

Selective adsorption of several common "monospecific" HLA typing sera with HLA typed platelets, purified B lymphocytes, cultured lymphoid cells, or lymphocytes from patients with active chronic lymphocytic leukemia demonstrated that many of these sera contain antibodies to non-HLA antigens. Antibodies were detected to antigens present on peripheral blood B-lymphocytes, cultured lymphoid cells and leukemic cells from patients with both myelocytic and lymphocytic forms of leukemia but absent from T-lymphocytes and platelets. Since these kinds of antibodies appear to be present in a large proportion of common HLA typing sera, caution should be used in interpreting all data related to HLA antigen expression in leukemia.