Identification of a 140-kDa activation antigen as a target structure for a series of human cloned natural killer cell lines.

In the present study, we have developed a monoclonal antibody termed anti-TNKTAR, able to block cytotoxicity mediated by a human natural killer (NK) clone termed JT9. Analysis of the functional effects of anti-TNKTAR indicated that alteration of the cytotoxic reactions resulted from the binding of the antibody to the membrane of target cells. In addition, it was shown that inhibition of cytotoxicity induced by anti-TNKTAR could be abolished by lectin approximation. Immunoprecipitation experiments indicated that TNKTAR antigen is a heterodimeric structure which resolves as a single band at 140 kDa under nonreducing conditions and as two bands at approximately 97 kDa and 40 kDa under reducing conditions in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis. This heterodimer is present on lymphocytes and monocytes in human peripheral blood and perhaps more importantly, the membrane density of TNKTAR antigen increases very early and strongly following lymphocyte activation. In addition, it was shown that TNKTAR is expressed on each single cultured cell line which has been tested, although the density of the antigen varies strongly from one cell line to another. Even though the 140-kDa molecule was found to be widely distributed on activated cells, anti-TNKTAR had no blocking effects on cytotoxic reactions mediated by a series of either NK or cytotoxic T lymphocyte clones unrelated to JT9. In contrast, anti-TNKTAR blocked, in an identical fashion, cytotoxicity of JT9 and two additional clones, JT10 and JT11, against a series of 8 sensitive targets. JT9, JT10 and JT11 human cloned NK cell lines have been derived from peripheral blood of one individual donor drawn on month 0 (JT9), 12 (JT10) and 18 (JT11). Most importantly, these three clones initially selected for their capacity to kill K562 cells have been found to express the same 90-kDa clonotypic antigen receptor structure (termed NKTa) and display identical specificity when tested against a panel of randomly selected target cell lines. We have previously demonstrated that a unique subset of NK active mature T lymphocytes interact with target cells via 90-kDa clonotypic determinants in a major histocompatibility complex-independent fashion. Taken together, the present data strongly supports the view that a surface antigen of 140 kDa, linked to cell activation, serves as a specific recognition structure at the target cell level for these NK-active T lymphocytes.