SPECIFIC AND SENSITIVE QUANTITATION OF TRANSFORMING GROWTH-FACTOR BETA-3 BY SANDWICH ENZYME-LINKED-IMMUNOSORBENT-ASSAY

Transforming growth factors beta (TGF-beta) consist of a highly homolo gous family of 25 kDa dimers involved in a diverse array of biological functions. Progress in understanding the biology of the third isoform (TGF-beta 3) of this family has been limited by the absence of a quan titative assay for TGF-beta 3. Here we report the development of a sen sitive and specific sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (SELISA ), which is based on an anti-TGF-beta mouse monoclonal IgG as the capt ure antibody and chicken anti-recombinant-hTGF-beta 3 IgY as the secon dary antibody. This assay can quantitate TGF-beta 3 in complex biologi cal fluids, with a detection limit of 2 pg and no cross-reactivity or inteference with as high as 1000-fold molar excesses of either TGF-bet a s 1, 2 or 1.2. This TGF-beta 3 SELISA is the first reported assay fo r the direct and sensitive quantitation of TGF-beta 3 in complex biolo gical fluids.