The preparation of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against the human milk fat globule membrane with preferential binding to breast carcinoma cells is described. Using BALB/c mouse myeloma cells; inter-specific, intra-strain, and inter-strain hybridomas were isolated that identified three different components of the human milk fat globule of approximately 46,000, and 70,000 daltons and a mucin-like glycoprotein complex (NPGP) ranging from 400,000 to over a million daltons, respectively. Three MAbs (BrE1, BrE2, BrE3) identified the latter component which consists of at least three different size molecules for which the aforementioned MAb's have different binding specificities. MAbs, BrE2 and BrE3, bound to normal breast epithelial cells but to a lesser extent than to tumors and only at the apical surface facing the lumen, while they bound breast carcinomas strongly, and often in the cytoplasm as well as on the surface. Higher concentrations of BrE3 were required to stain normal breast compared to breast tumors. BrE1 also stained breast carcinomas both on the surface and cytoplasmically but did not stain normal breast tissue. The MAb, Mc13, as well as the previously reported MAb McR2, both against the 70,000 dalton component, did not significantly stain either normal or cancerous breast tissue in histological sections but did bind significantly to cultured breast epithelial cells and to the milk fat globule membrane. The MAbs, Mc8 and Mc3, reported previously to be against the 46,000 dalton component, stained histologically only malignant breast tissue but only weakly; however, they bound strongly to intact breast carcinoma cells and breast cell membrane preparations with a radioimmunobinding assay. These MAbs should be useful in characterizing the surface of breast epithelial cells, studying surface alterations in malignancy, and possibly in breast cancer diagnosis and therapy.