Selected murine monoclonal antimelanoma antibodies have been extensively evaluated using multiple radioimmunoassay methods, immunoprecipitation and immunohistochemistry. Use of this approach has permitted more complete definition of the specificity of these reagents and provided information regarding the nature and distribution of the respective tumor associated antigens (TAA). Several patterns of reactivity were identified. Some of the reagents were highly reactive with melanomas but also with a variety of tissues of nonmelanoma origin. Others were less highly reactive but of greater specificity for melanoma. Finally, certain of the reagents were poorly reactive in the assays utilized or demonstrated assay-dependent reactivity. None of the included monoclonal antibodies appeared to detect TAA restricted in distribution solely to melanoma.

BackgroundUniparental disomy (UPD) is a rare condition in which a child inherits both copies of a chromosome or chromosome segment from one parent. Medical consequences of UPD may include abnormal imprinting, unmasking of genetic disease, and somatic mosaicism; alternatively, the condition may be clinically silent. We present a case of maternal UPD for chromosome 6, a rare condition previously reported less than 20 times. In our patient with a normal phenotype, the condition was discovered through abnormal paternity testing results. Uniparental isodisomy is a rare cause of discordant parentage testing results, but it is an important phenomenon to recognize.Case presentationWe present a female born at 32 weeks gestational age with birth weight 10–25%ile when corrected for prematurity. Paternity testing was obtained for legal reasons, and initial results appeared to exclude the alleged father. However, the lab performed additional testing which indicated that the patient was homozygous for maternal alleles for all three tested loci located on chromosome 6. Based on these results, the patient was referred for a medical genetics evaluation for possible maternal uniparental disomy. She presented for her consultation at 10 months of age and appeared to be developing appropriately. Her age-adjusted weight, length, and head circumference were <3%ile, 10%ile, and 25%ile respectively. Chromosomal microarray testing confirmed maternal UPD6. The patient was seen again at 14 months of age, and her weight and length were 10–25%ile. She had not developed concerning symptoms or physical exam findings.ConclusionsThe presence of UPD, especially in asymptomatic patients, has implications for paternity testing, as standard methods may miss cases of both isodisomy and heterodisomy. This rare inheritance pattern should be considered when discordant paternity results come under suspicion. It is unusual for a parentage testing lab to perform the amount of testing done for this case, but the initial inconsistencies necessitated further investigation. UPD6 has uncertain effects and variable phenotypes, so this patient’s genetic abnormality likely would have gone undiscovered if not for the non-medical indication for the laboratory analysis. Her asymptomatic presentation raises the possibility that UPD may be more common than previously estimated.

A chimpanzee anti-human melanoma antiserum was used to study the enzymatic susceptibility and spontaneous release into tissue culture medium of human melanoma tumor-associated antigens (TAA). Limited proteolytic digestion of melanoma cells with trypsin or with pronase rendered these cells refractory to lysis by the chimpanzee antiserum and complement. Longer periods of incubation of higher concentrations of enzyme caused an increased sensitivity to lysis. Digestion of melanoma cells with neuraminidase apparently exposed antigens reactive with natural antibodies in rabbit complement because cells so treated had a marked increase in sensitivity to cytolysis. Absorption of the complement with either neuraminidase-treated human melanoma cells or washed human spleen cells prior to its use in the cytotoxicity assay removed this activity. When absorbed complement was used, neuraminidase had no noticeable effect on the expression of malanoma TAA. These results suggest that proteolytic digestion of melanoma cells may prove to be a useful means of solubilizing TAA. The spontaneous release of melanoma cell membrane TAA was studied. Protein precipitated by (NH4)2SO4 from four of six samples of tissue culture medium used to feed malanoma cell lines contained significant antigenic activity compared to a control "antigen" preparation, whereas one preparation contained only limited TAA activity. One melanoma cell line that apparently failed to release TAA into the culture medium had previously become nonreactive with the chimpanzee antiserum. From these data, we conclude that melanoma cells growing in tissue culture rapidly release large amounts of TAA into the culture media and, as a result, the spent culture medium may be a good source for obtaining TAA for further study. The significance of these results is discussed.

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