Unique antibodies for functional studies

Wednesday - November 24, 2010

Unique antibodies for functional studies on mouse basophils and mast cells

Depletion of basophils by Ba103 and Ba91, antibodies recognizing CD200R3. These antibodies are important tools to gain more insight in the mysterious roles of basophils (Cat. # HM1103 and HM1104).

Although basophils constitute less than 1 % of circulating blood leukocytes, they gain more recognition as key players in the immune system. Basophils are often recruited to the site of allergic inflammation. Furthermore, basophils are candidate effector cells for the immune response against parasites and are a major source of the typical Th2 cytokine IL-4 during parasite infections.

The unavailability of mouse basophil-specific antibodies has long hampered the progress in clarifying the critical roles of basophils. Monoclonal antibodies Ba91 and Ba103 recognize the CD200 receptor type 3 (CD200R3). CD200R3 functions as an activating receptor on mast cells and basophils to regulate IgE-independent immune responses in cooperation with an inhibitory receptor CD200R. mAbs Ba91 and Ba103 selectively stain basophils from the peripheral blood, spleen, and bone marrow and mast cells form the peritoneal cavity and skin, but not from the intestine. In vitro incubation of Ba91 or Ba103 together with basophils or mast cells results in degranulation of the cells. Interestingly, intravenous injection of Ba103 into mice results in depletion of basophils but not mast cells.

In conclusion, mAbs Ba91 and Ba103 are usefool tools to study basophil function in a variety of mice species.

Figure 1.
mAb Ba91 induces degranulation of MC/9 cells. MC/9 cells were incubated with the indicated reagents. Degranulation was calculated by measuring ß-hexosaminidase release into the medium.

Cat. No.	Product	Applications
HM1103	Monoclonal antibody against Mouse CD200R3, clone Ba103	W IP FC FS
HM1104	Monoclonal antibody against Mouse CD200R3, clone Ba91	W IP FC FS

W = Western Blotting; IP = ImmunoPrecipitation; FC = Flow Cytometry; FS = Functional Studies (agonistic)

References
1. Kojima, T et al; Mast cells and basophils are selectively activated in vitro and in vivo through CD200R3 in an IgE-independent manner. J Immunol 2007, 179: 7093
2. Obata, K et al; Basophils are essential initiators of a novel type of chronic allergic inflammation. Blood 2007, 110: 913
3. Karasuyama, H et al; Newly discovered roles for basophils: a neglected minority gains new respect. Nature Rev Immunol 2009, 9: 9
4. Sullivan, B et al; Basophils: a nonredundant contributor to host immunity. Immunity 2009, 30: 12