A new acute leukemia-associated blast cell antigen detected by a monoclonal antibody.

A monoclonal mouse antibody has been raised to the common acute lymphoblastic leukemia (cALL) cell line Reh. It is a cytotoxic antibody of the IgG2, subclass that reacts with leukemia cells from the following patients: 69% non-B non-T ALL, 50% T-ALL, 18% acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML), and 66% chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) blast crisis lymphoid cells. Other types of leukemia and all normal blood cells tested were negative, including T and B lymphocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, erythrocytes, and spleen cells. The detected antigen appears to be a type of blast cell antigen because it is also present on phytohemagglutinin (PHA) blast cells, myeloblast from normal bone marrow cells (by CFU-C), and all lymphoblastoid cell lines tested. Only one active antibody species could be detected by preparative isoelectric focusing on polyacrylamide gels and by protein-A-Sepharose affinity chromatography.