Light and Electron Microscopic Studies of Cellular Localization of OPL with Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies

Accurate knowledge of placental lactogen localization is fundamental to any hypothesis of its synthesis and secretion. We used locally generated monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies from three separate sources to localize ovine placental lactogen immunoreactivity on light and electron microscope Lowicryl K4M sections of ovine placentomes of 97-145 days of gestation, using immunogold techniques. All antibodies demonstrated that immunoreactivity was exclusively localized in the trophoectoderm binucleate cell Golgi body and granules and in granules in the syncytium derived from binucleate cell migration. No evidence was found to support a recent claim that monoclonal antibodies to oPL that were produced in Canada indicated a predominant localization of ovine placental lactogen to uninucleate trophectodermal cells.