Monoclonal antibody Br4 recognizes specific neuronal celltypes

✍ Scribed by Dr. Mitsuo Saito; Mitsuo Saito

• Book ID: 102911988
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 769 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-4012
• DOI: 10.1002/jnr.490290112

✦ Synopsis

A monoclonal antibody termed as Br4 was prepared by a fusion of the myeloma P3X63-AG8-653 with spleen cells from BALB/c mice immunized with chick embryonic brain cells. Immunocytochemically, it reacts strongly with certain neurons in cerebral cortex, hippocampus, substantia nigra, and granular layer of cerebellum from rat brain but does not react with the white matter. A monoclonal antibody Br4 also reacts with primary cultured chick neurons, but not with cultured astrocytes. Western blots show that Br4 recognizes three proteins of 145,000, 108,000, and 97,000 molecular weight from the rat brain. The protein with molecular weight 145,000 (p145) and the protein with 97,000 molecular weight (p97) are essentially soluble; p145 is especially enriched in the synaptosomal soluble fraction. The protein with 108,000 molecular weight (plO8) is found in both membranebound and soluble forms. Western blots show that among the tissues examined the three proteins are found most abundant in brain and especially enriched in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. The Br4 antigens may be useful in identifying neuronal cell subpopulations in the central nervous system.