Relationship of the Human Erythrocyte Wrb Antigen to an Interaction Between

The Wrb antigen is a high-frequency human erythrocyte antigen invariably absent from En (a1 erythrocytes, which lack glycophorin A. However, glycophorin A from En (a+) W r (a + b-) red cells has an amino acid sequence identical to that of glycophorin A from W r (b+) erythrocytes. Evidence has suggested that the Wrb antigen may require the interaction of glycophorin A with either a lipid moiety or with another erythrocyte-integral membrane protein, band 3. We have investigated the role of band 3 in Wrb expression using murine monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) with Wrb specificity. These antibodies reacted by radioim-