Murine monoclonal antibody recognizing human alpha(1,3/1,4)fucosyltransferase.

We prepared a mouse monoclonal antibody, FTA1-16, that specifically recognizes human alpha(1,3/1,4)fucosyltransferase without crossreactivity to any other members of the alpha(1,3)fucosyltransferase family. The specificity was confirmed by both immunofluorescense staining of native antigens in the Golgi apparatus and Western blotting analysis, using stable transformant cells transfected with each gene of the alpha(1,3)fucosyltransferase family. Western blotting analysis on a series of human tumour cell lines from various tissues revealed that some epithelial cancer cell lines from digestive organs expressed an amount of alpha(1,3/1,4)fucosyltransferase in good correlation with expression of sialyl Lewis a antigen. Immunohistochemical staining by FTA1-16 on colon cancer tissues revealed enhanced expression of the enzyme in cancer cells in comparison to normal cells. Finally, the antigenic epitope recognized by FTA1-16 was determined using truncated recombinant peptides which were expressed in E. coli. A minimal length determined was a fragment, amino acid positions 132-153, of the alpha(1,3/1,4)fucosyltransferase.