B-lymphocytes from melanoma patients and normal individuals react with melanoma cells but also with irrelevant antigens.

Peripheral B-lymphocytes of 13 patients with uveal melanoma and of 5 healthy individuals were transformed with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The reactivity of these transformed cells with autologous or allogeneic melanoma cells and lymphocytes was measured by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Antigens which are neither self nor common environmental antigens (i.e., plant protoplasts, schistosome antigen and keyhole limpet haemocyanin) were used for controls. Lymphocyte reactivity with all types of antigen was apparent both in patients with uveal melanoma and in normal controls. The response detected by the techniques available is likely to reflect antibody multispecificity leading to mis-identification of irrelevant antigens.