An antigen in Hodgkin's disease tissue cultures: radioiodine-labeled antibody studies.

An antiserum was prepared in rabbits against an antigen obtained by density gradient sedimentation of centrifuged medium from monolayer cultures of spleens involved by Hodgkin's disease. The antiserum was tested by isotopic antibody techniques with cells from each of eight cultures derived from spleens involved by Hodgkin's disease, four cultures derived from normal adult spleen, and one culture each of fetal spleen and thymus. By an indirect radioiodine-labeled antibody assay, anti-Hodgkin's disease globulin reacted with an antigen on the surface of cells from the Hodgkin's disease cultures, the quantity of which was related to the number of target cells and the amount of antibody used. This Hodgkin's disease tissue-culture antigen did not react with a rabbit antiserum against fractionated medium from a normal spleen culture, nor against noncultured Hodgkin's disease tumor tissue. The tumor specificity of the Hodgkin's disease tissue-culture antigen was assessed by a direct technique using (125)I-labeled anti-Hodgkin's disease globulin absorbed with either cultured Hodgkin's disease cells or with cultured normal cells. By this method the quantity of antigen on cells from Hodgkin's disease cultures was 15- to 30-fold greater than that on cells from normal cultures. The Hodgkin's disease tissue-culture antigen is intimately associated with the propagation of the tumor in monolayer cultures, but its identity has not been established: it could be a viral component, a tumor or fetal antigen, or a normal tissue constituent.