The pattern of expression of CD147/neurothelin during human T‐cell ontogeny as defined by the monoclonal antibody 8D6

Abstract

A novel monoclonal antibody termed 8D6 was generated against the human leukemic T-cell line Molt 13 and was found to recognize the neurothelin structure, recently termed CD147. UM8D6 precipitated a single band from HSB2 cells of molecular weight 35 kDa nonreduced and 40 kDa reduced. CD147 is broadly expressed on human hematopoietic cells and is expressed more intensely on thymocytes than on mature peripheral blood T cells. A clear distinction was found by three-color flow cytometry between antigen density on single positive mature thymocytes subsets compared with the corresponding subset from peripheral blood. The 8D6 antibody did not have direct effects on T-cell activation or apoptosis, and the function of CD147 in development and activation of T cells is not yet clear. Nevertheless, its highly regulated expression during T-cell differentiation and the structural characteristics of this antigen suggest that it has an interesting and important role in T-cell biology.