Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies against the polyamine, spermine: immunocytochemical localization in rat tissues.

Two monoclonal antibodies of types IgG2b and IgG2a, anti-spermine-(Spm)-1 (ASPM-1) and anti-Spm-2 (ASPM-2) respectively were found among five clones of murine monoclonal antibodies, which were raised against Spm conjugated with bovine serum albumin via the cross-linker N-(gamma-maleimidobutyryloxy) succinimide (GMBS). Antibody specificity was evaluated by a recently developed ELISA binding test, and led to the study of tissue sections by immunocytochemistry (ICC). ASPM-1 showed exclusive immunoreactivity with Spm, with the exception of a negligible cross-reactivity (2.0%) with spermidine (Spd). ASPM-2, on the other hand, reacted almost equally with acetylspermine (Ac-Spm) and N1-acetylspermidine (N1-Ac-Spd) but with none of the other polyamine-related compounds tested. Complete agreement was obtained with the results of immunoblot analysis. Furthermore, results for antibody specificity obtained with the ELISA inhibition test and ICC model experiments using Sepharose gel beads strongly suggested that ASPM-1 recognizes the Spm molecule possessing at least a free terminal primary amino group, while ASPM-2 recognizes the Spm molecule acylated at both the terminal primary amino groups. An ICC method using ASPM-2 produced strong staining for polyamines (PAs) in the cytoplasm (but very few in the nuclei) of two different tumor cell lines and protein- or peptide-secreting cell systems, including exocrine and endocrine cell types; ASPM-1 showed immunoreactivity only with the tumor cell lines. These results strongly suggest that ASPM-2 may be useful for studies on actively proliferating and neoplastic cells, supporting our previously proposed idea that in immunocytochemistry PAs were converted to a variety of PA derivatives during the fixation process.