Antonio Palumbo

Sequence comparison of human and murine erythrocyte alpha-spectrin cDNA

The results of hybridization analyses using cDNA probes for mouse and human alpha-spectrin mRNA indicate that a single gene encodes the alpha-subunit of erythrocyte spectrin. Sequencing of the cDNA clones showed that they code for 370 amino acids (aa) covering three repeat domains close to the C terminus of alpha-spectrin. The cloned cDNAs will now permit the isolation of the alpha-spectrin gene and should lead to the characterization of the genetic aspects in human hereditary anemias in which alpha-spectrin has been characterized as the site of the molecular defect.

Discrimination Between Normal Hemopoietic Stem Cells and Myeloid Leukemia Cells Using Monoclonal Antibodies

The maturation process of normal hemopoietic cells can be recognized by in vitro clonogenic assays as a progression from multipotent stem cells (1) to pluripotent colony-forming cells (GFU-GEMM) (2) to colony-forming cells with a relatively restricted commitment to erythroid (BFU-E, CFU-E) (3) or granulocytic-monocytic differentiation (CFU-GM). Hybridoma technology has provided a tool for analysis of the maturation of hemopoietic cells using monoclonal antibodies. Our laboratory and several other laboratories have generated an assortment of monoclonal antibodies that react with antigens present on the hemopoietic cells of different lineages expressed at discrete stages of differentiation within the lineage (5–16).