Mouse antisera specific for desmosomal adhesion molecules of suprabasal skin cells, meninges, and meningioma.

Mouse polyclonal antisera were raised to the Mr 130,000 and Mr 115,000 cell surface glycoproteins, desmocollins, of desmosomes from bovine nasal epithelium. Immunoblotting confirmed that the antisera were specific for the desmocollins. An immunofluorescence study showed that the antisera distinguished between the basal and suprabasal layers of bovine and human epidermis. The antibodies reacted with cultured keratinocytes only after calcium-induced stratification. In epidermis, therefore, there appears to be a difference between the desmocollins of basal and suprabasal cells that may be important in relation to epidermal differentiation. Previous work has shown that polyclonal antisera raised in other animals (guinea pigs and rabbits) against desmocollins, as well as against other desmosomal components, react with all desmosome-containing epithelia. In contrast, an immunofluorescence survey of bovine, rat, and human tissues showed that the present mouse antisera stained only suprabasal skin cells and the arachnoid layer of the meninges, demonstrating that these have common determinants that distinguished their desmocollins from those of all other tissues. The antibodies also stained 11 of 12 meningiomas and, therefore, may be useful as a marker not only for the diagnosis of these tumors but also for investigation of their histogenesis.