The murine plasma cell antigen PC-1: purification and partial amino acid sequence

The murine plasma cell alloantigen PC-1 is selectively expressed on B lymphocytes in their terminal phase of differentiation into antibody-secreting cells. Previous work on an analytical scale has shown that PC-1 consists of two apparently identical disulfide-bonded polypeptides, each of Mr 115,000. In this paper, we describe the generation of a monoclonal antibody to PC-1 and its use in the preparative isolation of PC-1 by affinity chromatography. Final purification to apparent homogeneity was achieved by preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It was estimated that NS-1 myeloma cells possess 1 to 4 X 10(5) PC-1 monomers per cell on their surface. The yield of PC-1 after purification was approximately 10(5) monomers per cell. Purified PC-1 was digested with trypsin, and the resulting peptides were separated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Purified peptides were sequenced with a gas-phase sequencer.