Multiple antigenic determinants on type III collagen.

Eight monoclonal antibodies have been produced against human pepsin-soluble type III collagen. All antibodies were shown to be highly specific for type III collagen and did not cross-react with a range of other collagen types or connective-tissue proteins. Examination of type III collagen from other species showed that these antibodies had a wide range of species specificities, indicating that several distinct epitopes were being recognized. The location of the epitopes was investigated by using reactivity of the antibodies to CNBr fragments and to sequential fragments formed by tryptic digestion of renaturing type III collagen. These data also indicated that several distinct epitopes were recognized and that they were located over the length of the type III collagen.