| Abstract: | Monoclonal antibodies were raised against the ACTH receptor by immunization of BALB1 c mice with porcine adrenal cortex cell membranes. Competition and binding experiments confirmed that one of these antibodies, IV/14/9, reacted with the ACTH receptor in competition with ACTH and caused a definite ACTH-like effect. This antibody was used to characterize the hormone receptor of the porcine adrenal cortex. The number of antibody binding sites per cell was calculated from a Scatchard plot to be 124,100 +/- 10,000. The curve was linear indicating the existence of a single class of receptors. The finding that a high concentration of IV/14/9 totally suppressed maximally ACTH-induced steroidogenesis confirms the view that only a single class of ACTH receptors exists. The antibody IV/14/9 neither reacted with intact porcine thymus cells nor with normal porcine lymphocytes but was bound to the mouse adrenal tumor cell line Y1 and to normal rat adrenal cortex cells with a low affinity. Two dimensional electrophoresis of lysates of porcine adrenal cortex cells and subsequent blotting of the proteins on nitrocellulose, using IV/14/9 as a primary and anti-mouse Ig as a secondary reagent, permitted the detection of three forms of the receptor, two of which had an identical apparent molecular mass of about 85,000 Da (isoelectric points: 6.14 and 6.27). The third was somewhat larger (94,000 Da and pI = 6.21). |
