Characterization of Monoclonal Antibodies That Recognize Cell Surface Antigens for Cetacean Homologue to CD2, CD11/CD18, CD19, CD21 and CD45R
Sylvain De Guise; Karen Erickson; Myra Blanchard; Lisa Landon; Heather Lepper;
Janice Wang; Jeffrey L. Stott; David A. Ferrick
Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary
Medicine, University of California Davis, Davis, CA
Abstract
Relatively little is known about immune functions of marine mammals in
general, especially of cetaceans. As part of our current efforts to develop assays and reagents
to study the immune system of marine mammals, and in view of the effort currently made to develop
monoclonal antibodies to cell surface proteins of lymphocyte subsets in different species, the
present study reports on the characterization of 6 monoclonal antibodies against cetacean
lymphocytes homologues to CD2 (2 different antibodies), CD11/CD18, CD19, CD21 and CD45R. The
specificity of those antibodies has been characterized on the basis of immunoprecipitation of the
antigen they recognize, immunoperoxidase staining on cetacean lymph node sections, as well as one
and two color flow cytometric analysis of cetacean PBMC and single cell suspension of thymus,
lymph node and spleen. This is the first report of monoclonal antibodies to cell surface proteins
of lymphocytes in cetaceans, and these antibodies are foreseen as possible valuable diagnostic
tools to assess immune functions of captive and wild cetaceans as part of the evaluation of their
health status.