Tumor-associated antigens in spent medium of human melanoma cells: immunochemical characterization with xenoantisera.

Xenoantisera to human melanoma cells and to partially purified melanoma-associated antigens were coupled to protein A-bearing Staphylococcus Aureus or protein A-Sepharose and used as immunoadsorbents for the indirect immunoprecipitation of intrinsically radiolabeled proteins released into culture medium from various cultured human tumor and nontumor cell lines. These radiolabeled immunoprecipitates when analyzed by SDS-PAGE revealed highly reproducible molecular profiles of proteins and glycoproteins released by various cultured tumor lines and control cells into their spent culture media. A comparison of molecular profiles together with data indicating the binding specificity of known xenoantisera produced against human melanoma cells or their extracts led to the discovery of 2 macromolecules that are associated with human melanoma cells; a glycoprotein with a subunit m.w. of 240,000 (240K) and a single-chain glycoprotein of 94,000 (94K) m.w. also found in association with human carcinoma cells are described in this report.