THE CROSS-REACTIVITY OF LYMPHOCYTE AND RED CELL ANTIBODIES.

Abstract

Abstract This study, stimulated by the observation that in chronic lymphocytic leukemia both lymphocytes and red cells may be coated with antibody globulins reactive with Coombs antiserum, defined the presence of common red cell and lymphocyte cellular antigens by demonstrating that their experimentally induced antibodies are cross-reactive. This was done by immunizing rabbits with separate antigens and, with appropriate agglutinations and absorptions, quantitating homologous (concordant) and heterologous (discordant) antibody reactivities. Finer details of these antibodies were delineated by sensitizing lymphocytes with matched and mismatched antisera, subsequently incubating them with red cells, and evaluating these reactants for mixed lymphocyte-red cell agglutination and separate red cell clumping. In addition, dissociation of nonagglutinating lymphocyte antibody from the lymphocyte and reassociation on the red cell were tested by the mixed agglutination technique in combination with rat anti-rabbit globulin. The composite findings suggested that both cellular elements share antigens with like structural groupings but that lymphocyte antibody has a greater avidity for the red cell than red cell antibody has for the lymphocyte. This experimental antibody partitioning, also observed clinically, suggests that the lymphocyte may be coated prior to the red cell in the Coombs-positive hemolytic anemia of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and that the current autoantibody concept of this type of anemia might be reappraised on this account.