The development of specific antibodies is essential to understand a wide variety of biological phenomena and pathophysiological analyses. Podoplanin (PDPN), a type I transmembrane glycoprotein, is known as a diagnostic marker. Anti-PDPN monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against many species, such as human, mouse, rat, rabbit, dog, bovine, cat, tiger, horse, pig, goat, alpaca, Tasmanian devil, bear, whale, and sheep, have been established in recent studies. However, sensitive and specific mAbs against elephant PDPN (elePDPN) have not been established. Thus, this study established a novel mAb against African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) PDPN using the Cell-Based Immunization and Screening method. elePDPN-overexpressed Chinese hamster ovary-K1 (CHO/elePDPN) cells were immunized, and mAbs were screened against elePDPN using flow cytometry. One of the mAbs, PMab-265 (IgM, κ), specifically detected CHO/elePDPN cells by flow cytometry. These findings suggested the potential usefulness of PMab-265 for the functional analyses of elePDPN.
Keywords: CBIS; PDPN; elephant podoplanin; flow cytometry.