Immunological characteristics and histological distribution of human hair fibrous proteins studied with anti-hair keratin monoclonal antibodies HKN-2, HKN-4, and HKN-6.

By use of a mouse hybridoma technique, monoclonal antibodies were produced against hair fibrous proteins, which were extracted from normal human hairs. Three monoclonal antibodies, designated as HKN-2, HKN-4, and HKN-6, were chosen and used to investigate the immunological characteristics of hair fibrous proteins. Epidermal fibrous proteins were also extracted from human sole callus horny materials. Hair or epidermal fibrous proteins were electrophoretically separated on polyacrylamide gels with sodium dodecyl sulfate. By immunoblot analyses, HKN-2 and HKN-4 marked the electrophoretic bands of both proteins; however, HKN-6 reacted only with the bands of hair fibrous proteins. Immunohistochemically, all three monoclonal antibodies stained the keratogenous zone of anagen hairs. HKN-6 did not react with any other skin components or with tissues of other organs examined. Although HKN-2 showed reactions with skin epithelial tissues, except for epidermal basal cells and secretory cells of sweat glands, the reactivity of HKN-2 was limited within the skin. HKN-4 displayed a broad crossreactivity with all of the skin epithelial cells and various epithelial cells of other organs. These findings indicate that some components of hair fibrous proteins are immunologically specific to hair cells, whereas others broadly crossreacted with the fibrous proteins of other skin epithelial cells or with those of various epithelial cells. The anti-hair keratin monoclonal antibodies seem useful to examine the differentiation patterns of epithelial cells and tissues.