A phenyl-beta-galactoside-specific monoclonal antibody reactive with murine and rat NK cells.

The phenyl-beta-galactoside (phi-beta-gal)-specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) 49H.8 cross-reacts with the terminal disaccharide structure of the asialo GM1 (AGM1) molecule. It was found to react with phi-beta-gal determinants on murine and rat splenic natural killer (NK) cells, as measured by complement depletion studies. Flow cytometric analysis identified the antigen on two IL 2-dependent cloned murine NK cell lines and the rat large granular lymphocyte leukemia RNK. We have compared the 49H.8 reactivity to that of anti-AGM1 antisera (alpha-AGM1) on NK cells and a panel of NK related killer cells, including bone marrow-derived killer cells, lymphokine-activated killer cells (LAK), and anomalous killer cells (AK). We found that the 49H.8 specificity closely paralleled that of alpha-AGM1. When tested against Con A-reactive T cells, the 49H.8 mAb was less reactive than the alpha-AGM1, indicating that it may be a more specific marker for splenic NK populations than the alpha-AGM1.