Lymphocyte antigen Leu-19 as a molecular marker of regeneration in human skeletal muscle.

Antigen Leu-19 (Leu19-Ag), a 200- to 220-kDa surface glycoprotein, was originally identified on a subset of human peripheral lymphocytes exhibiting non-major histocompatibility complex-restricted cytotoxicity. Here we report that monoclonal antibody Leu-19 (mAb-Leu19) labels structures in human skeletal muscle: (i) satellite cells, which form the stem cell pool of muscle fiber regeneration, both in normal and diseased muscle; (ii) myotubes and myotube projections in regions of muscle fiber repair; (iii) periodically organized fibrillar structures in areas of regeneration; (iv) the surface of myoblasts and developing myotubes in culture. mAb-Leu19 precipitated a protein of approximately 200 kDa from cultured muscle cells. Our data show that Leu19-Ag is expressed on muscle-specific components of myosegments in repair and thus represents a molecular marker of muscle regeneration. On the basis of this molecular marker and using laser scan microscopy, it is possible to visualize at the light microscopic level hitherto undetectable details of muscle regeneration in routine cryostat sections.