Immunochemical characterisation of monoclonal antibodies directed to glycophorins A and/or B

Summary Among sixty-nine monoclonal antibodies submitted to the workshop, 28 antibodies directed to glycophorins A and/or B but without blood group specificity were investigated by a series of methods involving agglutination, flow cytometry with CHO transfected cells expressing glycophorin A, ELISA with a carbohydrate-free peptide (residues 1–72) of glycophorin A, and immunoblotting. These MAbs were subdivided in several groups according to their specificity: - N-terminal portion of GPA and GPB; - N-terminal trypsin-sensitive portion of GPA; - extracellular ficin-sensitive portion of GPA; - intracellular domain of GPA; - undetermined. Both flow cytometry with transfectant cells and ELISA with the synthetic peptide prove to be of value in order to determine subspecificities within these groups.