A preliminary report on monoclonal antibodies against human uveal melanoma.

Mouse Sp2/10 myeloma cells were fused with spleen cells from mice that had been immunized with freshly obtained primary human uveal melanoma cells. Hybrids that produced antibodies binding to the uveal melanoma cells, but not to fibroblasts, uveal or retinal cells of healthy donors, were cloned. Extensive specificity tests showed that the antibodies produced by the ten clones bound strongly to fresh or short-time cultures of primary human uveal melanoma tumor cells (UMEL-H, UMEL-K). Weaker binding occurred with a human uveal melanoma cell line (VUP-1), and with human skin melanoma cell lines (HMB-2, B-HM8), respectively. Binding assays with carcinoma cells, fibroblasts, uveal and retinal cells were negative. An intensive screening of this type is now under way.