Preparation of goat antibodies against interleukin 1: use of an immunoadsorbent to purify interleukin 1.

Antibodies with specificity for interleukin 1 (IL 1) were produced in a goat immunized with purified IL 1 alpha obtained from the murine macrophage cell line, P388D1. The anti-IL 1 IgG were capable of completely inhibiting the biologic activity of IL 1 in the murine thymocyte assay but had no effect on IL 2-driven T cell responses. Although the anti-IL 1 IgG were produced by using mouse IL 1, these antibodies also recognized IL 1 prepared from a human monocyte leukemia cell line. An immunoadsorbent column was prepared and used for the large-scale purification of IL 1 in relatively high yield. Approximately 250 micrograms of purified IL 1 were obtained from 50 liters of culture fluid, the yield being 20% of the initial activity. Six major species of IL 1 were resolved by using tris-glycinate discontinuous polyacrylamide gels. The purified IL 1 exhibited 50% of its maximal activity in the thymocyte proliferation assay at a concentration of approximately 1 X 10(-11) M.