Membrane Antigens of Human Myeloid Cells Defined by Monoclonal Antibodies

Abstract

The development of technology to produce monoclonal antibodies for the immunological detection of cell membrane antigens has been extensively applied to the identification of human lymphocyte cell surface antigens. This approach has led to the isolation of functional subsets of lymphoid cells [3] and the phenotypic resolution of discrete stages of lymphocyte differentiation which are often duplicated on leukemic cells [6]. More recently, monoclonal antibodies reactive with mature myeloid and monocytic type cells of normal donors have been described [2, 8, 10, 15]. These antibodies detect antigens which are not on lymphoid cells but show different specificities for nonlymphoid cells. Some monoclonal antibodies react only with monocytes or granulocytes [10, 15], while other antibodies react with both peripheral blood monocytes and granulocytes [8]. Most of these antibodies react with myeloid precursor cells in the bone marrow or cells undergoing early myeloid differentiation. These antigens may then appear at discrete stages of myeloid maturation or on cells from some patients with myeloid and/or monocytic leukemia.

This work was supported by grants AM 08054, CA 08975, CA 11265 and CA 15525 from the National Institutes of Health