Acute lymphocytic leukemia-associated cell membrane antigen.

Antisera were raised in New Zealand White rabbits against non-B, non-T acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) cells coated with antilymphocyte serum. Following minimal absorption with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells, the antiserum reacted mainly with non-B, non-T ALL cells. The following numbers of patients had leukemia cells that reacted with the ALL antisera: 13 of 18 with ALL, 3 of 27 with acute myelocytic leukemia, 1 of 8 with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML), and 0 of 12 with CLL. The positive CML was a patient in CML blast crisis. Normal peripheral blood B- and T-lymphocytes and normal bone marrow were negative. Reactions of the anti-ALL serum (136K) were compared with the reactions of a rabbit anti-B-cell antiserum (63K) that reacted with approximately 70% of leukemia cells. Cultured lymphoblastoid cell lines from normal donors were negative by both cytotoxicity and immunofluorescence tests. However, by immunofluorescence testing, 8 of 17 known malignant lines from a variety of lymphoproliferative disorders were positive; 4 of these lines were of T-cell origin. By immunoprecipitation and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the ALL antigen appeared to consist of a single polypeptide chain of approximately 98,000 daltons. The anti-ALL antiserum was not cytotoxic for normal myeloid stem cells (colony-forming units).