A novel human B-lymphocyte antigen shared with lymphoid dendritic cells: characterization by monoclonal antibody.

A novel cell-surface antigen (L25) expressed on human B cells was identified using a B cell-reactive monoclonal antibody (TB1-4D5). This L25 antigen was expressed on most B-lineage cells but not other cell types including thymocytes, T cells, granulocytes and monocytes. Thus, L25 existed on the majority of normal B cells present in the blood and lymphoid tissues, on cultured cell lines derived from normal and malignant B cells, and on neoplastic cells isolated from patients with B cell-derived malignancies. Though L25 was persistently expressed on B cells until 7 days after their activation with pokeweed mitogen (PWM), neither normal nor neoplastic plasma cells expressed L25. Moreover, L25 was present on cultured as well as freshly isolated leukaemic cells with common acute lymphatic leukaemia (CALL) antigen, which have been thought to correspond to the early B-cell ontogeny. Besides pan-B cell reactivity of TB1-4D5 antibody, it apparently cross-reacted with so-called dendritic or interdigitating cells located in the thymic-dependent areas of peripheral lymphoid organs, which have been presumably ascribed to those associated with accessory-cell function. Functional studies showed that anti-L25 (TB1-4D5) antibody had inhibitory effect on induction of immunoglobulin synthesis by PWM-stimulated B cells.