Monoclonal antibodies to bovine parathyroid hormone: production and characterization.

1. This paper describes the production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies against bovine parathyroid hormone (bPTH)-(1-84). 2. Spleen cells from A/J mice successfully immunized with bPTH-(1-84) were fused with SP2/O myeloma cells using PEG 4000 as fusogen. The screening method employed microtiter plates coated with sheep antimouse IgG and the presence of specific monoclonal antibodies was demonstrated by the binding of 125I-bPTH-(1-84). 3. A detailed study of the specificity of the three viable monoclonals with highest affinity showed that two (6FH6 and 6CD4) were amino-terminal specific and the other (5BG9) carboxyl-terminal specific. The two amino-terminal monoclonal antibodies appear to recognize the same antigenic site. 4. The monoclonal antibodies produced are potentially useful reagents for the development of new methods for the measurement of PTH in biological fluids, studies on the interaction of PTH with its receptor, as well as localization of PTH producing cells.