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ELSEVIER Vet. Immunol. Immunopathol. 42 (1994) 1-2

Veterinary immunology

and immunopathology

General introduction and acknowledgments

Throughout much of this century the horse was a favored species for studies of antibody specificity (Landsteiner, 1945 ). The use of horses in basic immunolog- ical research on antibody structure and function was brought abruptly to an end, however, with the development by Kohler and Milstein (1976) of the revolution- ary technique for producing mouse monoclonal antibodies through the use of cell fusion. It seems appropriate therefore that the technique of monoclonal antibody production has now been applied to that species which served the immunological community so well and for so long.

During the 1980s a number of publications appeared which described the ef- forts of individual laboratories to characterize immunologically relevant surface molecules of equine leucocytes using monoclonal antibodies. An informal can- vass of scientists working in equine immunology revealed enthusiasm for a col- laborative effort to compare and further characterize existing reagents, to estab- lish a common nomenclature for equine cluster of differentiation molecules, and to promote continued cooperation among the participating laboratories in the study of equine leucocyte phenotype, distribution, and function.

The First International Workshop on Equine Leucocyte Antigens was held at Girton College, Cambridge and Shadwell Stud, Thetford, UK on 12 and 13 July 1991 with the financial support of the Horserace Betting Levy Board and the Equine Virology Research Foundation. The participants gratefully acknowledge the contributions of those organizations to the success of the workshop.

This report summarizes the information obtained during the laboratory phase of the workshop in 1990 and 1991. Although the Workshop meeting resulted in the definition of a large number of molecules of equine leucocytes, much work remains before us. We look forward with great anticipation of the second work- shop meeting, which will be convened by Drs. Mark Holmes and Paul Lunn in 1995 in Davis, California during the International Veterinary Immunology Symposium.

There is a wide range of clinically important immunological conditions of the horse which beg for further investigation. These include severe combined im- munodeficiency disease of Arabian horses, a variety of partial immunodeficien- cies which occur in several breeds, allergic conditions such as 'heaves', chronic

SSDIO165-2427(93)O4005-R

2 J. Kydd, D.F. Antczak / Vet. Immunol. Immunopathol. 42 (1994) 1-2

obstructive pulmonary disease, lymphomas and leukemias, and infectious dis- eases caused by parasites, viruses, and bacteria. It is our hope that the reagents described in this report will find useful application in studies of the immune sys- tem of the horse.

References

Kohler, G. and Milstein, C., 1976. Continuous cultures of fused cells secreting antibody ofpredefined specificity. Nature, 256: 495-497.

Landsteiner, K., 1945. The Specificity of Serological Reactions, 2nd edn. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Julia Kydd (Newmarket, UK)

D.F. Antczak (New York, USA)