A HUMAN KIDNEY CDNA WHICH INDUCES A CELL-SURFACE PROTEIN EPITOPE RECOGNIZED BY A MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY AGAINST GALACTOSYLCERAMIDE

Antibodies against the myelin glycolipid galactosylceramide are widely used to study the distribution and function of this molecule. However , anti-galactosylceramide antibodies are not monospecific and have bee n shown to recognize epitopes carried not only by other glycolipids, b ut also by proteins. Using expression cloning we have identified a hum an kidney cDNA which induces a cell-surface protein recognized by the anti-galactosylceramide monoclonal antibody R-mab. These findings furt her support the idea that cross-reactive proteins may mediate some of the biological effects of the anti-galactosylceramide antibodies. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.