Development of a monoclonal antibody specifically reactive to gastrointestinal goblet cells

A mouse monoclonal antibody (7E6A5) of IgG isotype, reacting specifically with mucin-producing goblet cells of the human gastrointestinal tract, has been developed. 7E6A5 reacts by an ELISA with colonic protein eluted from a DEAE column. A screening by immunoperoxidase assay of 76 specimens from 19 different human tissues showed that the immunoreactivity of 7E6A5 was confined exclusively in the globules of goblet cells in the colon, the appendix, and the small intestine. Nongoblet small and large intestinal epithelial cells did not react. Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated the reactivity with mucin droplets in a homogeneous granular pattern inside the globules of goblet cells. Mucus-secreting cells from remaining parts of the gastrointestinal tract and other mucus-secreting organs such as respiratory, genitourinary tracts, salivary and mammary glands did not show any reactivity to 7E6A5. These findings indicate that the antigen recognized by 7E6A5 is shared by the goblet cells of both the small and large intestines and is unique to them. The monoclonal antibody may be useful in the study of function of mucus-secreting goblet cells and may represent an important tool in the evaluation of diseases such as ulcerative colitis, colon cancer, and intestinal metaplasia in gastric mucosa that are associated with quantitative changes in goblet cell numbers or with qualitative differences in mucin secretion.