Isolation of the JMH antigen on a novel phosphatidylinositol-linked human membrane protein

JMH is a high-frequency human erythrocyte blood group antigen. Previous work has shown that JMH is absent from complement-sensitive erythrocytes of patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH); such cells have a broad defect in expression of phosphatidylinositol (PI)-linked proteins. Using both human JMH antisera and a JMH-like murine monoclonal antibody, we have identified a 76-Kd membrane protein present in JMH-positive but not JMH-negative erythrocytes. A similar 76-Kd JMH protein was also identified on a human lymphoid T-cell line, HSB-2. Using PI-specific phospholipase C, a small amount of JMH antigen could be cleaved from intact erythrocytes and immunoprecipitated from the supernate of treated erythrocytes, thus confirming that the protein bearing the JMH antigen is anchored by a PI-linkage to the erythrocyte membrane. This protein was further shown not to be identical to decay accelerating factor (70 Kd), a previously identified PI-anchored protein of somewhat similar molecular weight.