Epitope mapping of the carcinoembryonic antigen with various related recombinant proteins expressed in chinese hamster ovary cells and 25 distinct monoclonal antibodies

Abstract Antigenic epitopes of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and non-specific cross-reacting antigen (NCA) were analysed in relation to their domain structures [domains N, I (A1-B1), II (A2-B2), III (A3-B3) and M for CEA and domains N, I (A1-B1), and M for NCA]. We reconstructed cDNAs for CEA-N, CEA-N-I, CEA-N-I-II, CEA-N-I-II-III-M (CEA-whole), NCA-N, NCA-N-I and NCA-N-I-M (NCA-whole), which were expressed in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells. The recombinant proteins were purified by immunoadsorption and gel filtration. Their mol. wts judged from Western blotting were 17,000–26,000 for CEA-N, 70,000 for CEA-N-I, 150,000 for CEA-N-I-II, 165,000 for s-CEA-whole which was spontaneously released from cells into culture medium, 180,000 for p-CEA-whole which was solubilized with phosphatidylinositol specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) from cells, 18,000–25,000 for NCA-N, 63,000 for NCA-N-I, and 96,000 for p-NCA-whole which was solubilized with PI-PLC from cells. The divergence of the observed mol. wts from those calculated from cDNA sequences seems to indicate that these recombinant proteins are highly N -glycosylated. By enzyme immunoassays, the immunoreactivities of the purified recombinant proteins were tested with 25 distinct anti-CEA monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), each representative of 25 different subgroups within five groups (Groups 1–5) previously classified by us in terms of the reactivity with CEA and CEA-related antigens. Twenty-one MAbs previously shown to react with different protein epitopes of the CEA molecule allow to define six groups (A-F) of epitopes according to their expression by different domains of the CEA and NCA molecules. Among four epitopes common to CEA and NCA, two were found to be present on domain N (Group A) and two on domain I (Group B). Among 15 epitopes absent from NCA but expressed by CEA and normal fecal antigens (NFAs), four were on domain N (Group C), five on domain I (Group D) and six on domain II (Group E). Two epitopes were previously described as “CEA distinctive”, because they were recognized by MAbs reacting with CEA but not with the NFAs. These two epitopes (Group F) were found to be expressed by p-CEA-whole but not by s-CEA-whole. The latter results suggest that the Group F epitopes are located on a part of the domain III close to the anchoring device of the CEA molecule. Two of four MAbs reactive with sugar epitopes reacted with all the recombinant CEA proteins, suggesting the presence of some carbohydrate epitopes similar to those of CEA used for immunization. The epitope mapping reported here helps form the basis for understanding the relation between the clinical structure and antigenic activities of the CEA molecule.