Reactivity of rat monoclonal antibody CAMPATH-1 with human leukaemia cells and its possible application for autologous bone marrow transplantation.

The rat monoclonal antibody CAMPATH-1 recognizes a hitherto undefined antigen present on virtually all normal lymphocytes and monocytes. Its reactivity with 105 samples of fresh leukaemic cells and 13 cell lines was measured by indirect fluorescence and peroxidase staining to define in more detail which stages of differentiation it recognizes. It was found to bind to cells from virtually all cases of lymphoid leukaemia (B cell CLL, T cell ALL, cALL and the few examples of HCL, PLL, Sezary syndrome and CGL in lymphoid blast crisis). The single case of cALL in relapse and four of six cases of null ALL were negative. Binding to non-lymphoid leukaemia cells (AML, AMML, AMoL, APL, AEL and CGL in blast crisis) was weaker or undetectable. Binding to established lymphoid cell lines was generally weak compared with fresh cells but some lines (MOLT4, DAUDI and X308) expressed adequate amounts of antigen to be lysed by CAMPATH-1 with human complement. Because CAMPATH-1 is very effective at killing lymphocytes in the presence of human complement, it has been used for removal of T cells in allogeneic transplants. The present results suggest that it might also have a role in purging bone marrow of leukaemia cells prior to autologous transplantation for acute lymphocytic leukaemia.