Differentiation between monoclonal antibody-defined antigens on a human osteogenic sarcoma cell line (791T) and tumor-localizing properties of the anti-791T/36 antibody.

Two monoclonal antibodies (anti-791T/36 and anti-791T/48) prepared against an osteogenic sarcoma cell line (791T) following xenogeneic immunization, reacted against the immunizing tumor, but not against normal cells from the tumor-donor, using an indirect 125I-protein A binding assay. Both antibodies cross-reacted with a small number of other osteogenic sarcomas and a few unrelated cell lines from an extensive panel, but the specificity of these cross-reactions was different. Both antibodies were labelled with 125I to detect direct binding to target cells, and the specificity of their reactivity was essentially identical to that observed in the indirect assay. Direct binding of each labelled antibody was inhibited by pretreating target cells with its unlabelled counterpart, but the two antibodies could not inhibit each other. The binding of anti-791T/36 was also not inhibited by pretreating the target cells with sera from the 791-T-tumor donor, which were shown to contain antibody reacting with the autochthonous tumor. It is concluded that 791T has two distinct tumor-associated antigens recognized by the monoclonal antibodies, and furthermore that at least one of these antigens is independent of those recognized by the patient from which the tumor cell line was derived. The efficacy of anti-791T/36 antibody labelled with radioactive iodine was demonstrated for localizing tumor deposits growing in immunodeprived mice.