Nature 270, 515 - 518 (08 December 1977); doi:10.1038/270515a0

Isolation of a human teratoma cell line which expresses F9 antigen

B. HOGAN^*, M. FELLOUS^†, F. JACOB^† & P. AVNER^‡

^*Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Mill Hill Laboratories, Burtonhole Lane, London, NW7, UK
^†Unité de Génétique Cellulaire de l'Institut Pasteur et du College de France, 25 rue du Docteur Roux/Hôpital Saint Louis, Paris, 75015, France
^‡Department d'Immunologie et Virologie des Tumeurs, U152, Hôpital Cochin, Rue du Faubourg St Jacques, Paris, 75014, France

THE F9 antigen, defined by antisera raised in syngeneic mice against pluripotent embryonal carcinoma cells, is present on early mouse embryos, spermatozoa and male germinal cells, but not on adult somatic tissues^1,2. This antigen, thought to be coded by gene(s) located at, or linked to, the developmentally important T/t complex, may play a part in early embryogenesis³⁻⁵. This idea is supported by the fact that the antigen seems to have been conserved during mammalian evolution. Anti-F9 activity is absorbed by sperm of several species including man, rat, rabbit and bull⁵⁻⁷ and there is evidence for its presence on the morulae of rabbit, rat and cow, and on human foetal testicular cells^2,5. The cross reaction of anti-F9 with human sperm suggested that undifferentiated stem cells in human teratocarcinomas might also carry F9 on their surface, and we report here the isolation of human teratocarcinoma cell line which expresses F9 antigen.

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