Antigenic heterogeneity of the reticular meshwork in the white pulp of mouse spleen.

Monoclonal antibodies against cellular components of reticular meshworks were produced by immunizing rats with heterogeneous stromal-cell population of mouse spleen. Immunohistochemical screening selected two antibodies, WP-1 and RPSC-2. WP-1 proved to immunostain the meshwork of the B area densely, leaving the marginal zone unstained; it also reacted sparsely with the meshwork of the T-cell region. In contrast, RPSC-2 selectively immunostained the meshwork of the T region. Immuno-electron microscopy clearly visualized, for both antibodies, reaction products being deposited along the cytomembrane of the fibroblastic reticulum cells, along their abundant cytoplasmic processes that were densely intertwined with lymphocytes. Double immunostaining with RPSC-2 followed by WP-1 clearly divided the white pulp into the T and the B domains. The meshwork in the T-cell region proved to be immunostainable with both WP-1 and RPSC-2. Thus, the fibroblastic reticulum cells of the T- and the B-cell areas, while indistinguishable by routine microscopy, are at least partially heterogeneous.