A novel monoclonal antibody recognizing human thymocytes and B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells.

This paper describes a new murine monoclonal antibody, UN5, raised against human thymocytes. This antibody recognizes a molecule of approximately 45 kDa on thymocytes. Flow cytometric analysis reveals a high intensity of labeling with the majority of thymocytes, whereas only CD20+ cells from peripheral whole-blood samples are weakly stained. Peripheral T cells, granulocytes, platelets and red blood cells do not express this antigen, while monocytes are only weakly labeled by UN5. Furthermore, the UN5 antibody discriminates between different types of B-cell malignancies, reacting with a subgroup of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemias and hairy cell leukemias, but not with the other kinds of hematopoietic malignancies tested. Antibody UN5 should prove a useful tool for the study of T-cell precursors and for analysis of both normal and neoplastic B cells.