Specificity of different anti-myosin heavy chain antibodies in bovine muscle.

Muscle fibre types play an important role in bovine meat tenderness, and conditions the speed of ageing. Two generations of myotubes appear during foetal life. Their differentiation results in several types of fibres differing in their contractile and metabolic properties, namely type I fibres and type II fibres (IIA and IIB). Fibre types were identified using antibodies by immunohistochemistry and western-blotting techniques. The aim was to test different antibodies on foetal and adult muscles by these two techniques. Ten monoclonal antibodies reported to be specific to different myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms in other species were tested. Only three antibodies were selected: BF.35, specific for I and IIa MHCs, F1.652 specific for foetal MHC and SC.71 an anti II MHCs (IIa and IIb) antibody. The use of these antibodies will enable a more precise characterisation of muscle fibres and will have applications in the study of bovine muscle ontogenesis.