Evaluation of monoclonal anti-Rh antibodies as reagents for blood grouping and for the identification of red cell membrane components associated with Rh antigen activity

Monoclonal anti-D reagents should ideally be able to detect cells which have deletions of the D « antigen mosaic , for example categories D^V and D^VI which are not infrequently found in the donor population. We investigated the ability of the monoclonal anti-D reagents to detect these cells and in addition D^VII and D^B cells. Monoclonal antibodies of other stated specificities were evaluated for specificity. All the monoclonal antibodies were evaluated as reagents for the investigation of red cell membrane structure using the immune complex isolation procedure of Moore et al. [1].