A surface marker for murine vascular endothelial cells defined by monoclonal antibody.

Spleen cells from a rat immunized with mouse cerebellar cells were fused with mouse myeloma cells. One of the hybridomas secreted a monoclonal antibody that reacts with a surface antigen on vascular endothelial cells. The antibody stained endothelial cells lining blood vessels in brain, heart, lung, kidney, and liver. It did not, however, stain endothelial cells lining hepatic sinusoids. Parenchymal cells were always negative. So far, an antigen of similar tissue distribution has not been described in the mouse and we have called it mouse endothelial surface antigen-1 (MESA-1). The antibody could be used as a highly specific usefulness for identifying endothelium-derived cells in culture has been demonstrated on cultures of dissociated mouse cerebellum, where it stained a subclass of fibronectin-expressing cells.