Differential cytotoxic acitivity of anticollagen serum on rat osteoblasts and fibroblasts in tissue culture.

Rat skin fibroblasts grown in tissue culture were lysed by anti-rat-tail collagen serum and antibodies to the ordered collagen-like synthetic polymer (Pro-Gly-Pro)-n. This cytotoxic effect is complement-dependent and occurs only if the fibroblasts were pretreated with trypsin. These anti-sera have very little cytotoxicity on cultured rat osteoblasts. This differential cytotoxicity is not due to differential binding of anticollagen serum to the cells. Both osteoblasts and skin fibroblasts bind the anticollagen serum as was demonstrated by fluorescent immunoglobulin.