Experimental studies performed in the rat over the last three decades have shown that antibodies raised against kidney or yolk sac, which, in the rat, surrounds the embryo and serves as a placenta during the major part of pregnancy, induced fetal resorptions or malformations. It is generally considered that the teratogenic antibodies decrease internalization and degradation of maternal proteins by yolk sac epithelial cells leading to an inadequate supply of nutriments to the embryo. These observations demonstrating the pathogenic role of antibodies to fetal envelopes are of great potential interest in clinical pathology since most cases of fetal malformations in humans are of unknown cause. The authors have recently shown that the key teratogenic antibodies in the murine system were directed against a 280 kDa-coated pit protein (gp280) specific for the brush border of epithelial cells lining the renal proximal tubule and the yolk sac. This observation allows for the unique opportunity to search for a similar system in humans. In this study, the presence in humans of a protein closely related to murine gp280 is shown, as indicated by extensive immunologic crossreactivity, close apparent molecular weights, strong homology of bidimensional peptide maps, and restricted distribution at the organ and subcellular level. In addition to kidney and yolk sac, human gp280 was also detected within the coated pits of the placental syncytiotrophoblastic cells. When introduced in an in vitro rat embryo culture system, antibodies to human gp280-induced developmental anomalies in a dose-dependent manner. These observations indicate that the antigenic component of the murine model is present in humans and can give rise to heterologous antibodies that cause developmental anomalies, suggesting that the experimental model might be of significance in human pathology.