Differentiation antigens of the lymphocyte cell surface.

Many alloantigens and xenoantigens of lymphocytes are not found generally on other tissues, and this suggests that much of the lymphocyte cell surface is differentiated in comparison with other cell membranes. These differentiation antigens are probably molecules that mediate lymphocyte-specific functions, and are also of interest in that they provide markers for different lymphoid cell types and may be important as target antigens for immunosuppressive anti-(lymphocyte) sera. The purification of differentiation antigens will be important in allowing their molecular properties to be discovered, and will also lead to the production of strong, specific antisera that can be used in functional studies. Radioimmunoassays have been developed for the analysis of anti-(lymphocyte) sera, and these assays provide advantages in purification studies over other techniques. The features of these assays are discussed, and studies of differentiation antigens of rat lymphocytes are described. These include the purification and characterization of the rat Thy-1 antigen, and preliminary studies on two other rat lymphocyte differentiation antigens.