REPORT ON THE BEHAVIOR OF MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES IN THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL PIG CD WORKSHOP IDENTIFYING THE NULL-CELL FAMILIES

Clustering analyses were carried out on data from five independent lab oratories testing 22 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) reacting with CD2(-) sIg(-)lymphocytes on 14 pig blood and/or tissue lymphoid target cells using cytofluorometry. This was coupled with extensive further studies on blood lymphocytes from normal and thymectomised SLAb/b inbred pigs . These mAbs formed two groups: those mainly identifying the large blo od-borne thymus-dependent Null T cells (N) and those reacting with tis sue and a small number of blood-borne thymus-independent lymphocytes ( N'). Based on their tissue cell reaction patterns, the 10 N' mAbs form ed three main groups: N' 1 A and B; N' 2 A and B; and N' 3. The 12 N m Abs fell into four groups N4-N7; N6 was divided into subgroups A-D. On e N' (032) and two N mAbs (010 and 063) were unclustered. Based on the se data, swine workshop cluster numbers were designated to groups N5 ( 021, 022 and 059) as SWC4, N6 (061 and 117) as SWC5 and N7 (020 and 14 1) as SWC6, the latter exceptionally as a single antibody, MAC320, sin ce it is the 'type' mAb identifying effectively all blood Null T lymph ocytes. Future research and workshops will have to define with a wider range of techniques the relationships, molecular properties and funct ional roles of the several new, perhaps novel, antigens identified by this family of fascinating, as yet still poorly defined, mAbs.