Summary
We characterized a murine monoclonal antibody, PT25-2 (IgG1), raised against washed human platelets. The antibody and its Fab fragments were
both capable of inducing platelet aggregation in a fibrinogen-dependent manner and
induced 125I-fibrinogen binding to unstimulated platelets (120,000 molecules/platelet at a 100
nM IgG concentration). The antibody immunoprecipitated the αIIbβ3 complex from lysates
of iodinated platelets but did not react with the respective subunits when complex
formation was disrupted by treatment with 5 mM EDTA at 37°C for 30 min. However, simply
removing the extracellular divalent cation with EDTA had no effect on antibody binding
indicating that the antibody’s epitope depends upon a conformational structure maintained
by αβ subunit association. Antibody binding to unstimulated, washed platelets yielded
binding parameters (Kd = 40 nM, Bmax = 100,000 molecules/platelet), which were found to be virtually unchanged when binding
was performed using thrombin or RGDS-peptide-stimulated platelets. Thus, the PT25-2
antibody defines a novel regulatory epitope expressed by the αIIbβ3 integrin on unstimulated,
quiescent platelets.