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Antigenic Changes on the Surface of Lymphocytes from Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia¹

Departments of Internal Medicine "A" [Z. B.], Immunology [D. W. W., D. S., E. K., I. C., O. E.], and Hematology [G. I.], Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel

The antigenic characteristics of the surface of lymphocytes from patients suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), from normal human adults, from patients with other neoplastic and nonneoplastic diseases, and from normal newborns were studied comparatively.

Rabbit antisera were prepared against the white blood cells of two CLL patients. Their reactivity against the different target cells was assayed by means of a cytotoxicity test and by the binding of labeled antibody preparations purified by absorption with normal human white blood cells and enriched by adsorption onto and elution from the leukemic target cells. The reactivity of normal rabbit serum and of a rabbit antiserum against normal adult white blood cells was investigated in parallel.

It was found that the surface of CLL white blood cells, which consist very largely of lymphocytes, is characterized by antigenic properties not expressed, at least in quantities of the same order of magnitude, on normal adult lymphoid cells or on lymphoid cells from patients with other pathologies. However, the lymphocytes of a proportion of normal newborns appeared to share these antigenic characteristics.

The tumor-associated antigenicity of CLL lymphoid cells could not be accounted for by adsorption onto their surface of serum proteins but appears to reside instead in the nature of the cell surface of the neoplastic variants.

The findings are discussed in light of the possible nature of tumor-associated antigens in general.

¹ This work was generously supported by grants from the Leukemia Research Foundation, Inc., Concern Foundation, Inc., and the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund, Inc., and by the Samuel Lautenberg and Celia Sievitz Fellowships.

Received 3/23/71. Accepted 3/17/72.