Pigs are thought to be the most suitable donor animal for xenotransplantation. However, pigs harbour potentially hazardous infectious agents, termed porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs), in their genome. In this study, we generated a mAb against PERV-B surface (SU) envelope protein (Env), designated KRT1. KRT1 binding was detected by an indirect immunofluorescence assay and flow cytometric analysis on cells infected with PERV-B. KRT1 neutralized PERV-B pseudotype virus and specifically recognized PERV-B SU Env, but not PERV-A SU Env by immunoblotting analysis. The peptide-ELISA revealed that KRT1 recognized a linear peptide sequence (ALEPPHNLPVP) residing in a proline-rich region that is one of the subdomains of SU Env. In conclusion, the KRT1 antibody will serve as a useful tool for the study of PERV-B and, more importantly, it may provide new protective strategies against PERV-B infection in xenotransplantation.Xenotransplantation is a solution to the shortage of human donors, and pigs are considered as the most suitable donor animal (Blusch et al., 2002). Although specific-pathogenfree pigs will be used for xenotransplantation, all pigs possess potentially hazardous infectious viral agents, named porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs), in their genome (Blusch et al., 2002). PERVs are members of the genus Gammaretrovirus and are divided into three subgroups (termed PERV-A, PERV-B and PERV-C) based on their different receptor usages (Le Tissier et al., 1997;Patience et al., 1997;Denner, 2008). PERV-A and PERV-B may transmit from pigs to humans, because humans have functional receptors for both PERV-A and PERV-B (Takeuchi et al., 1998;Denner, 2008). Although the risks caused by the infection with PERVs have not been fully assessed at present, they may potentially cause leukaemia, anaemia, immunodeficiency and cancers like other gammaretroviruses (Kawakami et al., 1980;Wilson et al., 2000;Denner, 2008). Gammaretroviral envelope (Env) consists of surface (SU) and transmembrane (TM) subunits, which interact via a disulfide bond between SU CX 2 C-and TM CX 7 C-motifs (Wallin et al., 2004). PERV SU Env consists of four subdomains, known as variable regions A and B (VRA and VRB), proline-rich region (PRR) and the C-terminal region (CR). Of these domains, VRA, VRB and PRR are divergent between subgroups (Le Tissier et al., 1997;Watanabe et al., 2005). In ecotropic and amphotropic murine leukaemia viruses, the receptor-binding domain needed for binding with host receptors spans VRA and VRB. In PERV-A and PERV-B, PRR might be involved in the proper binding to their receptors together with VRA and VRB (Watanabe et al., 2005). Recently, it was revealed that CR was also important for the infectivities of PERV-A and PERV-C (Gemeniano et al., 2006;Argaw et al., 2008).The information about the antigenicity of PERV Env is quite limited (Chiang et al., 2007) and the antigenic property of PERV-B Env has not yet been reported. In this study, we generated a neutralizing mAb against PERV-B and determined the neutralizing epitop...