title: A glycolipid on the surface of mouse natural killer cells.
abstract: Cytotoxic treatment with rabbit antiserum raised against purified glycosphingolipid "asialo GM1" was capable of eliminating natural killer (NK) activity of spleen cells from different inbred mouse strains including CBA/J, C57BL/6, BALB/c, AKR, and athymic nude mice. The anti-asialo GM1 antiserum showed little cross-reactivity with structurally related glycolipids, e.g. GM), GD 1 b and asialo GM2 in the microflocculation test. The specific reactivity of this antiserum with NK cells was confirmed by the quantitative absorption of anti-NK activity with graded amounts of asialo GM1 but not with other glycosphingolipids. The absorption of anti-brain-associated T cell antigen (anti-BAT) with asialo GM1 also effectively diminished its anti-NK activity, leaving the ability to kill T cells intact. This suggests that the antibody to asialo GM1 is responsible for the anti-NK activity contained in the anti-BAT antiserum. In contrast to the extreme sensitivity of NK cells to anti-asialo GM1, alloreactive cytotoxic T killer cells generated in the mixed lymphocyte culture were not killed by anti-asialo GM1 and complement. These results indicate that asialo GM1 is expressed on mouse NK cells in a high concentration.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000276:immunology; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000276:immunology*; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D005732:Gangliosides; D006017:Glycolipids