The extensive characterization of the replicative human DNA ligase I (LigI) undertaken in the last decade demonstrated that the level of this protein strongly correlates with the rate of cell proliferation. This may allow to expand the repertoire of clinical biomarkers for the analysis of cell proliferation. We have produced a new monoclonal antibody (5H5) against LigI and exploited it as cell proliferation marker in Western blotting and immunofluorescence as well as in immunohistochemistry on

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... araffin tissue sections. The Western blot analysis showed that the LigI level detected by 5H5 antibody is high in all proliferating cells. On the contrary the protein is down regulated in resting human fibroblast and peripheral blood lymphocytes. Immunofluorescence analysis on cultured HeLa cells showed that 5H5 antibody labels all proliferating cells and displays the same staining pattern of BrdU in S-phase nuclei. Finally the analysis of serial sections of inflamed tonsils and NHL lymph nodes (either frozen or paraffin embedded) demonstrated that 5H5 marks the same population of cells as the Ki-67 antibody. Our results demonstrate that 5H5 antibody is a valuable tool for labeling proliferating cells that can be conveniently used in Western blotting, immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry.