A mitochondrial membrane protein defined by a novel monoclonal antibody is preferentially detected in apoptotic cells.

Studies toward the biologic and molecular understanding of programmed cell death have been stimulated by the recent identification of genes and their products that regulate apoptosis. A panel of mAbs has been raised against dying cells in the present study by immunizing mice with apoptotic Jurkat cells. One of these Abs, anti-7A6, was found to react with apoptotic cells. Using ELISA or flow cytometry, little reactivity of anti-7A6 was observed in normal or digitonin-permeabilized human peripheral blood lymphocytes and a number of hemopoietic cell lines tested. The Ab, however, strongly reacted with these cells when they were induced to undergo apoptosis by irradiation or treatment with apoptosis-inducing agents. Cell sorting and DNA fragmentation experiments revealed that 7A6-positive cells, but not 7A6-negative cells, had apparent DNA fragments characteristic of cells undergoing apoptosis. By immunoblot, under reducing conditions, anti-7A6 detected a 38-kDa protein band in the cell lysates prepared from apoptotic cells. Immunoelectron microscopy showed the 7A6 Ag to be localized to the membrane of mitochondria in apoptotic Jurkat cells. These results indicate that anti-7A6 defines a novel epitope on the mitochondrial membrane protein that appears to be exposed on cells undergoing apoptosis, suggesting that the 7A6 molecule may be involved in the molecular cascade of apoptotic cell death.