A monoclonal antibody equivalent to anti-rat neural antigen-1 as a marker for Schwann cells.

The monoclonal antibody 217c, raised by Peng et al. [(1982) Science, Wash. 215, 1102-1104] in mice against the rat glioma cell line C6, can be used as a marker for normal Schwann cells. In mixed cultures of Schwann cells and fibroblasts from neonatal rat sciatic nerve, this monoclonal antibody, detected by indirect immunofluorescence, bound to the surface of cells with the same elongated morphology as those that express a previously described surface antigen, rat neural antigen-1 (Ran-1), defined by polyclonal mouse antisera. In these experiments Ran-1 and the antigenic determinant recognized by monoclonal 217c were both found on normal rat Schwann cells and on the rat glial tumor cell lines C6, 33B and 21A and the pheochromocytoma PC12. Neither anti-Ran-1 nor the monoclonal antibody bound to neurons, fibroblasts or glial cells in newborn rat cerebellum cultures, the rat muscle cell line L6, the transformed rat fibroblast cell line Rat 1, the rat brain tumor cell line B28 or the mouse Schwannoma cell line TR6B. Thus the monoclonal 217c behaved as if it were detecting Ran-1 by binding to normal rat Schwann cells and to those tumor cells that have this antigen. Our data show that this monoclonal antibody is a reliable and convenient marker for rat Schwann cells in culture.