A monoclonal antibody (3A3) raised against a rat neural cell line (PC12) was shown previously to bind to the surfaces of these cells, inhibiting substratum adhesion. Immunochemical and other data indicated that the heterodimer recognized by 3A3 was a member of the integrin family of adhesive receptors and had a beta 1 subunit. The relationship of the alpha subunit to other integrins was unknown. Here we show that 3A3 recognizes in rat tissues a heterodimer (approximately 185 kDa, approximately 110 kDa; unreduced) that is electrophoretically and immunochemically indistinguishable from the antigen in PC12 cells. Immunoaffinity purification of the heterodimer from neonatal rats and protein microsequencing indicate that the alpha subunit is identical at 11 or 13 N-terminal residues with VLA-1, an integrin on human hematopoietic cells. Monoclonal antibody 3A3 inhibits the attachment of rat astrocytes to laminin or collagen but not to fibronectin or polylysine. These data suggest strongly that the integrin recognized by 3A3 is the rat homologue of VLA-1, i.e., alpha 1 beta 1, and that alpha 1 beta 1 is a dual laminin/collagen receptor.