EVALUATION OF MOUSE ANTI-MOUSE uNK MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY OBTAINED BY INTRA-SPECIE IMMUNE RESPONSE AGAINST MOUSE UTERINE NATURAL KILLER CELL

LIMA P. D. A.(1), BIZINOTTO M. C.(1), TAMASHIRO W. M. S. C.(2), YAMADA A. T.(1)

(1)Department of Histology and Embryology; (2)Department Microbiology and

Immunology, Institute of Biology, UNICAMP

In the human and rodents a transient accumulation of natural killer cells in the uterus exclusively during pregnancy, suggests this cell as specific subset of lymphocyte population related to uterine environment during pregnancy. The high incidence of these innate immune response cells in the pregnancy is still an unsolved question of immunology of reproduction. Previously it was reported the Dolichos biflorus (DBA) lectin reactivity to mouse uNK cells but not to cNK (blood circulating) cells, showing differences in membrane glycoconjugates expression among them. Based on this data it was performed the intra-specie inoculation of mouse uNK cells to induces the immune response. The splenocytes from mouse presenting immunoglobulin reactive to uNK cells in the serum were isolated to obtain the mouse-anti mouse uNK (mam-uNK) antibody producing lymphocyte clones. In the present work it was used one of this mam-uNK antibody to evaluate its specificity. It was collected uterus, spleen, lymph node, hart, liver and kidney from mice on 8th and rat uterus on 9th gestational day for paraffin embedding. Paraffin sections were processed for immunoperoxidase or immunofluorescence. Round shaped and dot-like positive reactions were detected in the cytoplasm of both mouse and rat uNK cells. The cytoplasm of hepatocytes, epithelial cells of kidney convoluted tubules, macrophages of spleen and lymph node showed positive reaction in small vesicles distributed in their cytoplasm. In the cardiac muscle cells cytoplasm were evident the labeling on thin tubular and round vesicular shaped structures. These reactions pattern strongly suggest the antigen recognized by mam-uNK monoclonal antibody distributed in the membranous organelles such as secretory granules, lysosome-endosome system and endoplasmic reticulum, but it dos not seems to be specific for uNK cells.

KEY WORDS: uNK cell, Monoclonal Antibody, Reproductive Immunology

CORRESPONDENCE TO:

Aureo T Yamada, Institute of Biology, UNICAMP, CEP 13083-970, Campinas, SP, Brazil. Email: yamadat@unicamp.br