A nuclear matrix antigen HeLa and other human malignant cells.

Antisera were obtained in rabbits to preparations of dehistonized chromatin from HeLa cells. By complement fixation assays, the antisera reacted with HeLa cell chromatin but only marginally with human placenta chromatin. The complement-fixing reactivity of the antisera was inversely related to the amount of dehistonized chromatin used for immunization. Immunochemical staining of electrophoretically separated chromosomal proteins transferred to nitrocellulose sheets revealed numerous antigens in chromatin preparations from several human tumors, placenta, and normal kidney. While immunoabsorption of the antisera with placenta chromatin removed some of the immunochemical staining, many of the electrophoretically separated antigens resisted repeated immunoabsorptions. However, further comparisons revealed that only one major protein antigen (band at an approximate molecular weight of 81,000) was represented in all the assayed human tumors while being absent from human placenta or kidney. Fractionation of HeLa cells into three cytoplasmic and several nuclear fractions showed that almost all the antigens recognized by antisera to dehistonized chromatin were nuclear. The antigenic protein with an approximately molecular weight of 81,000 was found associated with the nuclear matrix fraction.