Monoclonal antibodies (NU-T1 and NU-T2) recognizing antigens expressed on human T cells

Two murine monoclonal antibodies (mAb) designated as NU-T1 and NU-T2 were generated to identify the novel antigens expressed on human T cells. NU-T1 reacted with peripheral blood T cells, but not with granulocytes or monocytes, whereas NU-T2 were not reactive with peripheral blood lymphocytes, granulocytes or monocytes. Both NU-T1 and NU-T2 reacted with thymocytes. The incidence of NU-T1 or NU-T2 reactivity with the leukemic cells from patients with various types of leukemia was as follows: 12/12 or 4/12 in acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) of T cell type, 6/6 or 0/7 in adult T cell leukemia, 0/6 or 0/19 in ALL of non-T non-B cell type, and 0/8 or 0/8 in acute myelocytic leukemia, respectively. The incidence of NU-T1 and NU-T2 reactivity with human leukemic T cell lines were 4/10 and 5/10, respectively. In contrast, neither NU-T1 nor NU-T2 reacted with B cell lines, non-T non-B cell lines, or myeloid cell lines tested. These results indicate that NU-T1 and NU-T2 recognize two distinct differentiation antigens expressed on the cells in the T cell lineage. These mAb would be useful reagents to study the function of human T cells and the immunophenotyping of human T cell malignancies.