Comparison of monoclonal antibodies used for immunological monitoring of renal transplant recipients.
To investigate the comparability of the OKT and Leu monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) used for immunological monitoring, T cell subpopulations in 360 blood samples from 35 renal allograft recipients were studied by flow cytometry using both series of mAbs. To identify the activated cells in the different subpopulations, those labeled with the Leu mAbs were double-labeled with an anti-HLA-DR mAb. The percentages of T cells that stained with the Leu3a and Leu2a mAb using a direct immunofluorescence technique were significantly lower than the percentages of cells that stained with the OKT4 and OKT8 mAb using an indirect immunofluorescence technique (47.6 +/- 12.8% and 14.5 +/- 9.1% [mean +/- SD] versus 50.5 +/- 11.2% and 18.3 +/- 8.0%, respectively; P less than 0.0001). Since the difference between the Leu2a+ and OKT8+ cells was relatively greater (21%) than that between the Leu3a+ and OKT4+ cells (6%), the mean Leu3a/2a ratio was significantly higher than the mean OKT4/8 ratio (6.64 +/- 9.7 versus 3.60 +/- 2.82; P less than 0.0001). The difference between the Leu2a+ and OKT8+ cells were not attributable to a difference in the sensitivity of the direct and indirect immunofluorescence technique. A large difference between the Leu2a+ and OKT8+ cells correlated with a high percentage of DR+ cells within the Leu2a population (P less than 0.001). No correlation was found for the difference between the OKT4+ and Leu3a+ cells and the DR expression in the Leu3a+ cell population. These observations suggest that activation of some T cells of the "cytotoxic-suppressor" phenotype leads to antigen modulation in which the OKT8 epitope is not affected but the Leu2a epitope disappears or cannot be detected with the present method.
F C
FC
Henny
P J
PJ
Oljans
H J
HJ
Tanke
L C
LC
Paul
L A
LA
van Es
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D000945:Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000276:immunology*; D000939:Epitopes; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology*; D013602:T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic / Q000276:immunology; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000276:immunology
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000945:Antigens, Differentiation, T-Lymphocyte; D000954:Antigens, Surface; D000939:Epitopes