A monoclonal antibody that labels Purkinje cells in the rat cerebellum.

A monoclonal antibody (MAb-1D10), generated by immunizing Balb/c mice with homogenized bovine retinal tissue, labeled the Müller cells in the bovine retina and the Purkinje cells of the rat cerebellum. In the neonatal rat cerebellum, immunoreactivity for MAb-1D10 appeared first in the ventral regions of vermis (lobuli I-III and IX-X) on the 11th postnatal day (P11), while in the dorsal vermis and cerebellar hemisphere, the immunoreactive Purkinje cells were detected on P13. Western blotting analysis disclosed that MAb-1D10 recognized bovine retinal polypeptides with mol.wt. of 48 kDa. Transplantation of the rat cerebellar primordia on 16th embryonic day demonstrated large and round cells with a linear arrangement in the grafts surviving well in the host rat striatum after 50 days of the grafting. These large cells were immunohistochemically labeled by MAb-1D10. No other cells in both the graft and the host striatum were immunoreactive to the MAb.