Specificity of different anti-myosin heavy chain antibodies in bovine muscle

Muscle fibre types play an important role in bovine meat tenderness, and co nditions the speed of ageing. Two generations of myotubes appear during foe tal life. Their differentiation results in several types of fibres differin g in their contractile and metabolic properties, namely type I fibres and t ype II fibres (IIA and IIB). Fibre types were identified using antibodies b y immunohistochemistry and western-blotting techniques. The aim was to test different antibodies on foetal and adult muscles by these two techniques. Ten monoclonal antibodies reported to be specific to different myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms in other species were tested. Only three antibodies w ere selected: BF.35, specific for I and IIa MHCs, F1.652 specific for foeta l MHC and SC.71 an anti II MHCs (IIa and IIb) antibody. The use of these an tibodies will enable a more precise characterisation of muscle fibres and w ill have applications in the study of bovine muscle ontogenesis. (C) 2000 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.