Monoclonal antibody 14E identifies the oligodendrocyte cell body in normal adult human and rat white matter.

A monoclonal antibody, 14E, which detects immunocytochemically the perikarya of interfascicular oligodendrocytes in sections of normal adult human and rat white matter, was obtained using isolated normal human oligodendrocytes as the immunogen. 14E is an IgM antibody that reacts with a polypeptide of approximate molecular weight 23,000 on immunoblots of the particulate fraction of normal white matter. In sections of active multiple sclerosis plaques and recent infarcts, 14E immunostained the cell bodies and processes of only a small number of hypertrophic glial cells which could be oligodendrocytes undergoing pathological changes or a subpopulation of reactive astrocytes.