Monoclonal antibodies against species-specific antigens in the chick central nervous system: putative application as transplantation markers in the chick-quail chimera.

With the recent progress in transplantation of neuronal tissues, cellular markers are needed to distinguish the grafted cells from the host. To generate monoclonal antibodies (MAb) recognizing species-specific antigens in the chick nervous system, we immunized mice with chick optic nerves and obtained 2 MAb which bind to chick but not to quail neural tissues. MAb-39B11 recognizes the cell surface antigen on the nerve fibers. MAb-37F5 recognizes the cytoplasmic components in several cell types, including ependymal cells and some large neurons. The utility of these MAb as markers for chick cells in the chick-quail chimeric brain and their advantages over conventional markers are discussed.