Isolation of four major glycoprotein families (ZP1, ZP2, ZP3, ZP4) of porcine zona pellucida and characterization of antisera raised to each glycoprotein family.

Porcine zona pellucida (ZP) contains antigens which cross-react with man, and anti porcine ZP antibody was found to exhibit a strong blocking effect on human sperm-ZP interaction. Previously, we found that porcine ZP was composed of four major glycoprotein families (ZP1, ZP2, ZP3, ZP4). In this study, each of the glycoprotein families was isolated by O'Farrell's two-dimensional electrophoresis and injected into mice to obtain antisera to each component. All the mouse antisera had high titers of antibodies to porcine and human ZP in an immunofluorescent staining test. Western blot analysis showed that although the antisera most strongly reacted with the corresponding components of porcine ZP, each glycoprotein family also possessed antigens which cross-reacted with each other. The antisera to ZP1, ZP3 and ZP4 strongly inhibited human sperm-ZP interaction but antiserum to ZP2 had no inhibitory effect on it.