Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were generated by immunizing mice with the mesothelioma cell line SPC111 and selected by indirect immunofluorescence on viable cells. Indirect immunofluorescence staining and radioimmunoassays demonstrated selective binding of the antibodies ME1 and ME2 with the surface membrane of mesothelioma, but not with lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. Lung small-cell carcinoma cell lines were unreactive, while staining was seen in a proportion of lung squamous-cell carcinoma cell lines. The antibodies were unreactive with other cell lines, including breast, colon, ovarian, and renal-cell carcinoma, leukemia, and lung fibroblast. The antibodies stained normal mesothelial cells, but were unreactive with normal bronchial epithelial cells in primary cultures, or peripheral blood cells. Immunohistochemical staining of cryostat sections of tumor tissues confirmed the ability of the antibodies to distinguish between mesothelioma and lung adenocarcinoma. All 12 mesothelioma tissues, but none of 9 lung adenocarcinomas or large-cell carcinomas, stained with the MAbs. Staining of malignant mesothelioma tissues was very homogeneous. Some lung squamous-cell carcinomas and breast carcinomas were stained focally by both, and some ovarian carcinomas by one antibody. Solid-phase radioimmunoassays demonstrated antigen sensitivity to chymotrypsin digestion and binding competition between the antibodies. The antibodies ME1 and ME2 identify a surface membrane antigen with preferential expression on normal and malignant mesothelial cells. They distinguish malignant mesothelioma from lung adenocarcinoma on cryostat sections and promise to be useful tools in biological studies of mesothelial cells.