Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies to human tumor necrosis factor.

Five stable hybridoma cell lines secreting antibodies to recombinant human tumor necrosis factor (TNF) were established. All monoclonal antibodies belong to the IgG1 subclass. One monoclonal antibody (MAB) (designated as 3B10) neutralizes the L929 cytotoxic activity of natural and recombinant human TNF. Other MABs bind to human TNF but do not neutralize cytotoxic activity. A sandwich enzyme immunoassay specific to human TNF molecule has been developed using 3B10. This assay measures only biologically active human TNF molecules and is as sensitive as a bioassay which measures the cytotoxic activity on L929 cells. These results show that 3B10 is quite useful in studying the biological functions of TNF.