Sensitive ELISA for interleukin-6. Detection of IL-6 in biological fluids: synovial fluids and sera

Maarten Helle, Leonie Boeije, Els de Groot, Alex de Vos, Lucien Aarden

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238 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A monoclonal antibody and an affinity purified polyclonal antibody, both raised against recombinant human IL-6, have been employed in an ELISA procedure to quantitate human IL-6. Both antibodies were very potent in neutralizing the biological activity of recombinant as well as natural human IL-6. The monoclonal antibody was used as the capture antibody whilst the polyclonal antibody, in biotinylated form, was used as the detecting antibody in combination with a streptavidin horseradish peroxidase conjugate and a signal amplification system. The detection limit for natural as well as recombinant IL-6 was 1 pg/ml. A good correlation was found between the ELISA and the B9 biological assay when IL-6 was measured in crude culture supernatants, in synovial fluids of rheumatoid arthritis patients and in the sera of patients with diverse diseases. Immunoprecipitation of IL-6, produced by different cell types, such as monocytes, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells or derived from biological fluids, such as the serum of a patient with septic shock or the synovial fluid of a rheumatoid arthritis patient, revealed in every case only molecules in the molecular weight range of 21,000-26,000.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)47-56
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of immunological methods
Volume138
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Apr 1991

Keywords

  • Amplification
  • ELISA
  • Interleukin-6
  • Serum

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