Bovine pan T-cell monoclonal antibodies reactive with a molecule similar to CD2.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) CH128A and CH61A react with molecules of 50,000-60,000 MW. They are expressed by all T cells in cattle, comprising 44-69% of peripheral blood mononuclear leucocytes (PBM), the majority of lymphocytes in T-dependent areas of lymph node, and 75-80% of cells derived from the thymus including both cortical and medullary thymocytes. The molecule recognized by these mAbs is not expressed on B lymphocytes, monocytes/macrophages, or granulocytes. Both mAb inhibit spontaneous rosette formation by sheep erythrocytes and bovine lymphocytes. We postulate that these mAb see the bovine homologue of the human sheep red blood cell receptor CD2 and has been named BoT2.