Immunocytochemical localization of myosin in rabbit liver cell.

It has been established that the liver cell possesses its own myosin which resembles other non-muscle myosins in subunit composition and in its dependence of actin-activated Mg2+-ATPase activity on light chain phosphorylation (Ueno T, Sekine T: Biochem Int, 1987;15:1205). We have raised a specific antibody against rabbit liver cell myosin. Immunoblot analysis has shown that the purified antibody reacts only with the heavy chain of liver cell myosin. The antibody did not react with rabbit skeletal muscle myosin or with smooth muscle myosin extracted from rabbit intestinal wall. Cryostat liver sections analyzed by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy showed a characteristic polygonal staining pattern, indicating that myosin is concentrated close to the plasma membrane, particularly in the region of bile canaliculi. Myosin therefore appears to be localized in the area where actin filaments are also abundant.