Antibodies against merokeratin from sheep wool decorate cytokeratin filaments in non-keratinizing epithelial cells.

Merokeratin is an easily soluble proteolytic derivative of mature alpha-keratin. Guinea pig antibodies have been raised to merokeratin prepared from sheep wool. These antibodies decorate in immunofluorescence microscopy arrays of bundles of intermediate sized filaments present in established epithelial cell lines growing in culture. Thus, the highly helical soluble proteolytic fragments of mature alpha-keratin contains antigenic determinants shared by the cytokeratins present in non-epidermal cells, and antibodies to these keratin fragments can be used for the demonstration of at least some cytokeratin-containing structures in other cells and tissues.