Monoclonal antibodies against human T lymphocytes label Purkinje neurones of many species

Abstract

Conventional antibodies have long been used in an attempt to produce specific neural markers^1,2. Such markers would be invaluable for studying the structural organization and development of the nervous system. Unfortunately, they have not generally been found to discriminate satisfactorily between neuronal subpopulations^3,4. Recent developments of the hybridoma technique⁵, however, promise to provide monoclonal antibodies of adequate specificity. Such antibodies have already been generated and shown to be capable of distinguishing between individual neurones of the leech nervous system⁶. We report here two monoclonal antibodies which, although generated against human T cells^7,8, react exclusively with Purkinje cells in the vertebrate central nervous system (CNS). This new specificity arose out of a fortuitous observation made during examination of the lymphocyte infiltration of human cerebellar tumours with the monoclonal antibody, UCHT1. Although widely used as a T-cell marker, its reaction with neural tissue has not hitherto been described. To our knowledge, this is the first description of a monoclonal antibody which recognises a functionally discrete neuronal population in the vertebrate brain.