Assay of Human Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator (t-PA) with an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) Based on Three Murine Monoclonal Antibodies to t-PA

Abstract

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the measurement of human tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) was developed. Microtiter plates were coated with a mixture of two monoclonal antibodies and bound t-PA was quantitated with a third monoclonal antibody linked to peroxidase. The lower limit of sensitivity of the assay was 0.2 ng of t-PA per ml. The concentration of antigen in citrated plasma of human subjects was found to be 3.4 ± 0.8 ng/ml. The assay had a good reproducibility with values of 3.8, 6.5 and 4.9 percent respectively for the intra-, inter-assay and inter-dilution variation coefficients. The results of the ELISA assay on plasma samples from patients during thrombolytic therapy with t-PA correlated very well, over a wide concentration range, with those obtained with a previously described two-site immuno-radiometric assay (r = 0.96). This ELISA with monoclonal antibodies constitutes a stable and reproducible set of reagents for the measurement of t-PA antigen in biological fluids, avoiding the disadvantages of the use of radioisotopes and of polyclonal antibodies.