THE RELATIONSHIP OF HNK-1 (LEU 7) AND VEP13 ANTIGENS ON HUMAN-CELLS MEDIATING NATURAL KILLING

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  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 57  (3) , 703-709
Abstract
The natural killer (NK) cell associated antigens defined by the 2 monoclonal antibodies, HNK-1 (anti-Leu 7) and VEP13, were investigated for their mutual expression on peripheral blood lymphocytes of healthy donors. In double labeling experiments only 6 .+-. 3.9% of peripheral blood lymphocytes were found to carry both markers. When VEP13+ cells were enriched by rosette formation using VEP13 coated ox red blood cells, all the NK activity was recovered in the VEP13+ cell preparation, whereas the VEP13- subset was devoid or it, despite of the fact that there was a remainder (7-13%) of HNK-1+ cells. These VEP13-HNK-1+ cells were found to also bear the T3 antigen but lack the M1 antigen. Of the VEP13+ enriched cell population, 38-68% also expressed the HNK-1 antigen. When these cells were further separated into HNK-1+ and HNK-1- cells by the fluorescence activated cell sorter, thus yielding the VEP13+HNK-1+ and VEP13+HNK-1- subsets, both populations were able to mediate natural killing against K-562 target cells, thus indicating existence of an HNK-1-NK cell population. Investigating lymphocytes from a patient suffering from a leukemia in which 75% of cells were of large granular lymphocyte morphology, 32% of cells were NHK-1+ while 76% of cells were VEP13+, thus revealing a similar phenotype as observed in normal individuals. These results indicate the existence of a HNK-1-VEP13+ NK cell population.

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