Surface antigenic change during differentiation of a parasitic protozoan, Leishmania mexicana: Identification by monoclonal antibodies.

The fusion of SP2/0 myeloma cells with spleen cells from mice immunized with Leishmania mexicana amazonensis promastigotes produced hybridoma clones. Indirect immunofluorescent antibody assay with live leishmanias showed that the monoclonal antibody 6H12 recognized only the antigens bound to the surface of L. mexicana amazonensis promastigotes. It also showed that the antibody bound to neither amastigotes of this species nor to other Leishmania species--i.e., L. braziliensis braziliensis, L. tropica, and L. donovani. Monoclonal antibodies from three other clones (4D11, 4H9, and 6A11) were found to compete with 6H12 for binding to L. mexicana promastigotes. With lysates of [35S]methionine-labeled promastigotes, all four monoclonal antibodies precipitated the same triplet set of protein bands at the approximately equal to 68,000-dalton region, whereas another monoclonal antibody (6G5) precipitated a different band at approximately equal to 90,000 daltons. During differentiation of L. mexicana amazonensis from amastigotes to promastigotes, there was a 4- to 8-fold increase above the initial level in the binding of 6H12 monoclonal antibody to leishmanias, as detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and quantitative fluorometric assay, respectively. Thus, we have demonstrated the use of monoclonal antibodies as probes for antigens that change during leishmanial differentiation.