Characterization of anti-HLA class II monoclonal antibody LGII-612.14 reacting with formalin fixed tissues.

mAb LGII-612.14 derived from a BALB/c mouse immunized with interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) treated cultured human B lymphoid cells LG-2 has been shown with serological and immunochemical assays to recognize a monomorphic determinant expressed on the beta chain of HLA-DR, -DQ and -DP antigens. The linear nature of the determinant, which is likely to be formed by residues 19-25, is indicated by the reactivity of mAb LGII-612.14 with HLA-DR, -DQ and -DP beta chains purified by electrophoresis in presence of SDS. An unusual characteristic of mAb LGII-612.14 is its reactivity with fixed tissue sections. The intensity of staining is affected by the incubation temperature, the incubation time and the fixative used. Maximal intensity of staining of formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue sections required an incubation time of 16 h. The intensity of staining of paraffin embedded tissues initially fixed with Bouin's solution, formalin or ethanol was similar to that of frozen tissue sections and stronger than that of tissues fixed with B5 solution. No staining was detected of paraffin embedded tissues fixed with glutaraldehyde or Zenker's solution. Comparison of the staining patterns with mAb LGII-612.14 of frozen and fixed tissue sections showed that the latter substrates provide a superior detail of tissue architecture and cellular morphology without significant loss of sensitivity. Furthermore, comparison of the characteristics of mAb LGII-612.14 with the few previously published anti-HLA class II mAb reacting with fixed tissues indicates that mAb LGII-612.14 stains formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissues, while mAb 910D7 and TAL-1B5 stain tissues fixed with less commonly used fixatives. Furthermore, mAb LGII-612.14 is likely to yield more sensitive staining results than anti-HLA-DR, -DQ and -DP mAb KUL/05. The present results indicate that mAb LGII-612.14 represents a useful probe to apply immunohistochemical techniques to the analysis of the distribution of HLA class II antigens in fixed tissues. This will greatly facilitate the use of readily available collections of fixed tissue specimens in retrospective studies to assess the clinical significance of changes in HLA class II antigen expression which occur in various disease states.

Improvement by affinity chromatography on antiidiotypic monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) of immunoreactivity and in vivo targeting of radiolabelled anti-HMW-MAA MAb TP61.5 in nude mice bearing human melanoma lesions.

The human high-molecular-weight melanoma-associated antigen (HMW-MAA) represents a useful marker for immunoscintigraphy in patients with melanoma. Since injection of a radiolabelled anti-HMW-MAA monoclonal antibody (MAb) visualizes only about 60% of melanoma lesions, approaches are being developed to increase the sensitivity of immunoscintigraphy. One of them aims at improving the immunoreactivity of radiolabelled anti-HMW-MAA MAbs, since this approach may improve the targeting of radiolabelled MAbs to melanoma lesions. We have previously shown that affinity chromatography on insolubilized anti-idiotypic MAbs is a useful method for purifying immunoreactive anti-HMW-MAA MAb TP61.5 from 125I-labelled MAb preparations and that not all the anti-idiotypic MAbs are useful for this purpose. Since the increasing number of available anti-idiotypic MAbs is likely to facilitate the application of this procedure in many antigenic systems, we have now tested criteria to select anti-idiotypic MAbs suitable for the purification procedure. Furthermore, we have investigated the effect of the increase in immunoreactivity of 125I-MAb TP61.5 on its in vivo targeting to human melanoma lesions transplanted into nude mice. Among the 3 anti-idiotypic MAbs tested, the most effective in purifying immunoreactive MAb TP61.5 molecules following radiolabelling is MAb TK7-110, with which 125I-MAb TP61.5 displays an immunoreactivity similar to that displayed with melanoma cells. This parameter may represent a useful criterion to identify anti-idiotypic MAbs suitable for the purification procedure, if the present results are confirmed with a large number of anti-idiotypic MAbs in different antigenic systems. We have also shown that an incubation time for up to 4 hr of 125I-MAb TP61.5 with insolubilized MAb TK7-110 is the most effective in increasing immunoreactivity and in recovering immunoreactive MAb applied to the affinity matrix. The increase in the immunoreactive fraction of 125I-MAb TP61.5 significantly increases its specific localization in human melanoma lesions transplanted into nude mice. These results suggest that purification of radiolabelled immunoreactive anti-HMW-MAA MAb TP61.5 by affinity chromatography using anti-idiotypic MAb TK7-110 represents a useful approach to increasing the sensitivity of immunoscintigraphy in patients with melanoma.