Purification of the H-2Kk molecule of the murine major histocompatibility complex

The intact H-2Kk antigen has been detergent-solubilized and purified using an immunoabsorbent column prepared from the 11-4.1 monoclonal antibody described by Oi et al. (Oi, V. T., Jones, P. P., Goding, J. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology (Melchers, F., Potter, M., and Warner, N. L., eds) Vol. 81, pp. 115-129, Springer-Verlag, New York). The mild conditions used for elution from the column, 0.5% deoxycholate in 10 mM Tris buffer, pH 8, with 0.14 M NaCl, result in recovery of 70 to 100% of the allogeneic serological activity. A murine lymphoma, RDM-4, was found to express high levels of H2-Kk; approximately 2 X 10(6) molecules/cell. Milligram quantities of H-2Kk can be purified readily using these cells.