A novel monoclonal antibody against the C-terminal region of aquaporin-4

Monoclon Antib Immunodiagn Immunother. 2013 Aug;32(4):270-6. doi: 10.1089/mab.2013.0007.

Abstract

Aquaporin-4 (AQP4), the most abundant water channel in the brain, plays a central role in water homeostasis, neuronal activity, and migration of astrocytes in the central nervous system. Recent studies have demonstrated that AQP4 is a target of an autoantibody specifically detected in an autoimmune neurologic disease called neuromyelitis optica. Here we have generated a monoclonal antibody (MAb) against the C-terminal region of AQP4 using a baculovirus expressing mouse AQP4 as an immunogen. This antibody (clone E5206) recognized both human and mouse AQP4s in a denaturing condition and was able to precipitate AQP4 from cell lysates of CHO cells stably expressing AQP4. Western blot analysis using deletion mutants revealed that the epitope was located within a region between Asp(303) and Leu(320) in the C-terminal tail of AQP4. Although clone E5206 could not be used for immunostaining when cells or tissues were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde or 10% formalin, it could be used when cells were fixed with 10% trichloroacetic acid and when a formalin-fixed tissue section was pretreated with antigen-retrieval reagents. This MAb can be a valuable tool for analysis of AQP4 in a variety of physiological and pathophysiological contexts, in human tissues and organs as well as in rodent models, both in vitro and in vivo.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / biosynthesis
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / immunology*
  • Antibodies, Monoclonal / isolation & purification
  • Antibody Formation
  • Antibody Specificity
  • Aquaporin 4 / immunology*
  • Blotting, Western
  • Brain / immunology
  • Brain / metabolism*
  • CHO Cells
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Cricetinae
  • Cricetulus
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Female
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Humans
  • Hybridomas / immunology*
  • Immunoenzyme Techniques
  • Immunoprecipitation
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid

Substances

  • Antibodies, Monoclonal
  • Aquaporin 4
  • Recombinant Proteins