Establishment of hybridomas secreting monoclonal antibodies to placental alkaline phosphatase and development of an enzyme immunoassay for its determination.

We established seven hybridomas secreting murine IgG monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) to placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP). The seven hybridomas were designated (1) 7C6, (2) 6G10, (3) 5B9, (4) 6D5, (5) 6B5, (6) 11G6 and (7) 3E10, respectively. The characteristics of these hybridomas were evaluated by radioimmunoassay (RIA) with 125I-PLAP. Their reactivity with the intestinal alkaline phosphatase, one of the alkaline phosphatase isozymes, was (1) 0.04, (2) 0.2, (3) 1.4, (4) 1.8, (5) 0, (6) 4.0 and (7) 6.2(%), respectively. None of them showed signs of cross-reactivity with the liver-type alkaline phosphatase, also one of the alkaline phosphatase isozymes, within a PLAP concentration of 2,000 IU/l. The subtype of 5B9 was IgG1, and that of the others was IgG2a. We then used 7C6, to develop a sensitive, specific and convenient enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for the determination of PLAP, and assayed sera from patients with various gynecologic diseases. The incidence of increased PLAP was 6.4% in patients with benign diseases, 21.5% in cervical cancer, 36.4% in endometrial carcinoma, and 39.5% in malignant ovarian tumors. The specificity for malignant diseases seemed to be higher than that of CA125. Among endometrial carcinomas, well-differentiated adenocarcinoma had the highest incidence of an increased concentration. Among malignant ovarian tumors, serous cystadenocarcinoma, endometrioid carcinoma, dysgerminoma and Krukenberg's tumor showed a higher incidence than the other types.