Monoclonal antibodies to rat androgen-binding protein recognize both of its subunits and cross-react with rabbit and human testosterone-binding globulin

A series of four monoclonal antibodies to rat androgen-binding protein (ABP) has been developed. These antibodies recognize both the heavy (48,400-dalton) and light (43,000-dalton) subunits of the native ABP molecule. In addition, they recognize the subunits from which Asn-linked oligosaccharides have been removed by treatment with iV-glycanase, indicating that these moieties do not form the immunological determinants recognized by the antibodies. Two of these antibodies are capable of recognizing both nondenatured ABP, as assessed by dot blot analysis, and denatured ABP, as determined by Western blot analysis of ABP after electrophoresis under denaturing conditions. The immunoreactivity of denatured ABP is decreased with two of the antibodies, suggesting that they more readily recognize the antigenic epitopes when the protein is in its native configuration. The antibodies were capable of immunoprecipitating covalently labeled ABP from solution. All four monoclonal antibodies produced were determined to be immunoglobulins M by both enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Ouchterlony immunodiffusion even though the initial serum response of the immunized animals indicated the presence of immunoglobulins G. All of the monoclonal antibodies raised against rat ABP crossreacted with rabbit and human testosterone-binding globulin (TeBG). They were able to detect two subunits when Western blots of intact rabbit [mol wt (Mr, 43,000 and 40,500] or human (Mr, 47,600 and 44,500) TeBG were probed, but only a single subunit (Mr, 39,300) when deglycosylated samples of rabbit TeBG were analyzed.