High levels of RAE-1 isoforms on mouse tumor cell lines assessed by anti-"pan" RAE-1 antibody confer tumor susceptibility to NK cells.

Two sublines of the benzpyrene-induced mouse hepatoma cell line, G-1 and G-5, showed low and high metastatic ability, respectively, to the lung. We produced a polyclonal antibody (pAb) against RAE-1alpha. Five isoforms of RAE-1 have been identified to date, and this pAb recognized all isoforms and was named anti-"pan" RAE-1 pAb. The level of RAE-1 was approximately 5-fold higher in G-5 than in G-1, which was almost RAE-1-negative, as determined using anti-pan RAE-1 pAb. Expression levels of other markers including MHC class I (MHC-I) and Qa-1b were very low and indistinguishable in these sublines. NK-mediated cytotoxicity was determined with these sublines; G-5 was highly susceptible to NK-mediated cytolysis, while G-1 was relatively resistant. The NK-mediated G-5 > G-1 killing profile was diminished if the G-5 cells were pretreated with F(ab)(2)(') of anti-pan RAE-1 pAb. G-1, when transfected with Rae-1alpha cDNA, acquired NK-responsiveness similar to that of G-5. These and additional data using mouse cell lines with low MHC-I levels and various RAE-1 levels also demonstrated that RAE-1 level is critically associated with NK-susceptibility in tumor cells.