Isolation and tissue profiles of a large panel of phage antibodies bindingto the human adipocyte cell surface

Phage display is a powerful technique for the rapid selection and isolation of antibodies to any given target antigen. We have applied this technology to isolate over 100 different human antibodies that bind to antigens expre ssed in situ on the human adipocyte cell surface. This is a diverse panel o f antibodies, as indicated by the V-region sequences. The binding profile o f each anti-adipocyte antibody has been characterised using phage antibody immunocytochemistry against a panel of normal human tissues. Although there was some variation in the intensity of the adipocyte staining, each antibo dy consistently recognised adipocytes, where present, irrespective of the t issue source. In addition, all of the antibodies recognised at least one ot her cell type other than the adipocyte cell surface. In total, over 50 diff erent tissue-binding profiles were recorded, with the most frequently recog nised tissues identified as capillaries or smooth muscle. Extensive tissue binding profiles were generated for some antibodies using a panel of 37 dif ferent human tissues. This identified anti-adipocyte antibodies with unexpe cted profiles, such as FAT.13, which binds only to adipocytes and capillari es in the entire tissue panel. We believe this is the most extensive survey ever undertaken of the human adipocyte cell surface. Moreover, similar met hodology could be used to derive complete tissue-binding profiles of antibo dies against cell-surface antigens of any cell type. Indeed, by screening a ntibodies on both normal and diseased tissues, it may be possible to identi fy antigenic associations between different cell types and the pathologies of many diseases. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.