Nuclear and mitotically enhanced epitope.

Salt-extracted proteins of taxol-stabilized microtubules from Chinese hamster ovary cells arrested at mitosis were used to immunize mice for hybridoma production. From a group of related monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), one, C9, recognized an epitope on antigens localized by immunofluorescence microscopy to interphase centrosomes and nuclei. The availability of the nuclear antigen was cell cycle-dependent; however, permeabilization of cells before fixation revealed that the antigen was present throughout the cell cycle. The nuclear antigen was exposed during prophase and was released from the nucleus upon nuclear envelope breakdown filling the cytoplasm of the mitotic cell. Antigenic material re-accumulated at daughter nuclei and was concealed during G1 phase. Detergent extraction of the cytoplasmic antigen from mitotic cells enabled localization of antigens to centrosomes, kinetochores, and the furrowing region/midbody. Immunoblot analysis of cells of a variety of species of origin identified an approximate 250 kD polypeptide as corresponding to the nuclear antigen, whereas polypeptides of 107/117 kD as well as approximately 250 kD accounted for the mitotic cytoplasmic antigens. No polypeptides could be associated with antigens at centrosomes, kinetochores, or midbodies. This MAb joins the antibody preparations previously reported that describe nuclear antigens, or epitopes on antigens, enhanced at mitosis.