Monoclonal Antibody to Human Cytotrophoblast

Abstract

A monoclonal antibody (18B/A5) has been generated against human first trimester trophoblast membranes which, unlike others so far reported in the literature, reacted only with cytotrophoblast and not with syncytiotrophoblast. Although the identity of the target antigen has not yet been established, the antibody could be a valuable tool for the identification and eventual separation and purification of human cytotrophoblast cells.

Human cytotrophoblastic antigens defined by monoclonal antibodies.

“…In this regard, this modulation or disappearance of the antigens in the syncytiotrophoblast is very interesting because the syncytiotrophoblast, located at the outher surface of the placenta and possibly exposed to immunological attack from maternal lymphocytes, may be immunologically inert. There have been some reports (Loke and Day 1984;Contractor and Sooranna 1986;Yamashita et al 1986) that monoclonal antibody was raised against cytotrophoblast.…”

Non‐ or minimally invasive prenatal diagnostic tests on maternal blood samples or transcervical cells

“…Using the same MAb, Pool et al (1987) and Bertero et al (1988) could not detect major differences in the incidence of H3 15 + cells between pregnant women and control female subjects. Cytotrophoblastic cells could not be detected in peripheral or uterine vein blood samples using MAb 8B6 (Covone et al, 1984b) raised against this type of cell (Loke and Day, 1984). Also Chua et al (1991) were unable to detect trophoblastic cells in peripheral blood samples obtained from normal pregnant women, although these cells could be found in uterine vein blood specimens.…”