We have isolated two monoclonal antibodies to cytokeratins and determined their cell specificities. They display interesting localization within the rat mammary gland. One (lA10) shows specificity for myoepithelial cells; the other (24B42) is specific for lumenal cells at various stages of development. These two monoclonal antibodies and three others to cytokeratin previously isolated were used in conjunction with antibodies to myosin and collagen IV to confirm and extend our previous findings on epithelial cell types and development within the mammary gland.Antibodies, especially monoclonal antibodies, are very useful for identifying cell types using immunocytological methods. This approach has been used in our laboratory for studying the pathways of cell differentiation in the mammary gland (1). Antibodies to cytokeratins are especially useful in this context because there are many different kinds of cytokeratins, which display considerable cell specificity.The cytokeratins are expressed by a multigene family that is developmentally regulated (see refs. 2 and 3 for reviews). They are expressed mostly in epithelia but also in mesothelial cells (4). Every tissue has a complex pattern of these peptides, which can be distinguished by their isoelectric point and electrophoretic mobility in gels. Many tissues share the same peptides (5, 6). The distribution of the peptides, ascertained by either extraction or by immunohistochemical methods using polyclonal antisera, differs in different organs or in different parts of the same organ-for instance in different layers of the epidermis. Similar peptides are found in different mammalian species. Using monoclonal antibodies (7), the existence of both peptide-specific and common epitopes was observed (8). Monoclonal antibodies with considerable specificity (8-10), as well as some with broad crossreactivity (11), were identified by immunohistochemistry. Using polyclonal antisera to partially purified peptides it was shown by immunohistochemistry that cytokeratins are not uniformly distributed in the mammary gland (11-13). Quantitative differences were observed between myoepithelial and epithelial cells, and in the latter cells, between ductal and secretory alveolar cells (12)(13)(14).Cytokeratins show considerable crossreactivity among species. For instance, Lane (15) has shown that monoclonal antibodies to cytokeratins from PtK1 cells recognize cells in the rat mammary gland. We have found that one of these antibodies (Le6l) is highly selective for certain cell types (1). By taking advantage of this crossreactivity, we have prepared a set of monoclonal antibodies from mice immunized with total cow muzzle keratin. We report here on the properties of two antibodies that have considerable cell specificities. These antibodies are very useful for studying the cell types present in the rat mammary gland. They allow a further refinement of the pathway of cell differentiation in this organ. We also compare these monoclonal antibodies with three others from mice immunized w...