Expression of the antigens recognized by monoclonal antibodies to human amnion (GB4, GB9, GB11) on the rabbit eye during embryonic development.

Three monoclonal antibodies to human amnion (GB4, GB9 and GB11) which recognized well-defined structures of the adult rabbit eye were used to study the embryonic eye development. The reactivity of GB4 could be identified on the migrating neural crest cells under the corneal epithelium at 2 weeks of gestation. At 3 weeks of gestation, the conjunctival epithelium, corneal epithelium and corneal endothelium reacted with GB4. In the newborn rabbit, the corneal epithelium was reactive with GB9 instead of GB4; corneal endothelium was positive with GB4 at this stage, but gradually became negative in the adult rabbit; the subcapsular epithelium of the lens was recognized by GB4 when it changed from pseudostratified to simple cuboidal epithelium. During early embryonic life, GB11 was positive on the external retinal layer of the optic cup and lens vesicle. In the adult, GB11 reacted only with the pigmented epithelium of the ciliary processes. The results of this study demonstrated that the expression of antigens recognized by GB4, GB9 and GB11 could be mapped according to the epithelial differentiation of the rabbit eye during embryogenesis.