Monoclonal antibodies against merokeratin from sheep's wool.

Four monoclonal antibodies designated as AMK-6, AMK-10, AMK-16 and AMK-27, were raised against merokeratin prepared from sheep's wool, and their cross-reactivity to epithelial cytokeratins were examined using immunoblot analysis and immunohistochemistry. AMK-16 which was specific to merokeratin in immunoblot analysis, demonstrated specific immunohistochemical staining of wool fibers of the sheep's skin. The other 3 monoclonal antibodies (AMK-6, -10, and -27) showed cross-reactivity towards epithelial cytokeratins with several molecular weights when examined by immunoblot analysis. However, each immunohistochemical staining of the sheep's skin with these monoclonal antibodies appeared to be cell type-specific. These results indicate that merokeratin and certain epithelial cytokeratins share many antigenic epitopes in common, and these monoclonal antibodies against merokeratin from sheep wool will be useful for the analysis of wool-forming cell differentiation.