Anti-human stromelysin monoclonal antibody and method for diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis by enzyme immunoassay

摘要

Anti-human stromelysin monoclonal antibodies reactive with latent and active forms of stromelysin without discrimination between the two, each being immunoreactive with only one of the antigenic determinants of human stromelysin, are provided. The use of a combination of two such monoclonal antibodies which specifically react with different antigenic determinants of human stromelysin renders it possible to accurately determine the amount of human stromelysin in human body fluids, and thus to carry out the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. There are thus provided said monoclonal antibodies per se, a sandwich enzyme immunoassay for the determination of the amount of human stromelysin in human body fluid samples using a combination of two such monoclonal antibodies, and a method for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis using said immunoassay.