ABSTRACT
Cretinism is marked by irreversible mental and growth retardation. We describe here an entirely new case of cretinism showing combined pituitary hormone deficiencies of thyrotropin, growth hormone and prolactin that appears to be caused by homozygosity for a nonsense mutation in the gene for the pituitary specific transcription activator, Pit-1/GHF-1 (designated PIT1 in humans for pituitary specific factor 1). This is the first report in humans of a defect in a transcription activator causing deficiency of multiple target genes.
Subject(s)
Congenital Hypothyroidism/genetics , Congenital Hypothyroidism/metabolism , DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics , Hormones/deficiency , Transcription Factors/genetics , Amino Acid Sequence , Base Sequence , Consanguinity , DNA/genetics , Female , Growth Hormone/deficiency , Humans , Male , Molecular Sequence Data , Pedigree , Point Mutation , Prolactin/deficiency , Thyrotropin/deficiency , Transcription Factor Pit-1ABSTRACT
Using three different monoclonal antibodies (McAb no. 374, no. 964 and no. 1190) to human interleukin-1 alpha (rHu-IL-1 alpha), we have established two sandwich enzyme immunoassays (EIA) to differentiate rHu-IL-1 alpha and its deamidated derivative (rHu-Asp36-IL-1 alpha) where the asparagine at position 36 (counting from the N-terminus) of rHu-IL-1 alpha is converted to Asp. The McAb no. 1190 reacts specifically with rHu-IL-alpha and not with the rHu-Asp36-IL-1 alpha whereas both no. 374 and no. 964 can react with the two different forms of rHu-IL-1 alpha. The first EIA (S-EIA I) which uses the McAb no. 964 labelled with horse-radish peroxidase and the McAb no. 1190 fixed to the microtiter plate, only measure rHu-IL-1 alpha. The second EIA (S-EIA II) which uses enzyme labelled no. 964 and no. 374 fixed to the plate, can detect both rHu-IL-1 alpha and rHu-Asp36-IL-1 alpha and this assay of total rHu-IL-1 alpha is comparable to a competitive EIA using an enzyme-labelled rHu-IL-1 alpha and an anti-rHu-IL-1 alpha polyclonal antibody. Thus, the level of rHu-Asp36-IL-1 alpha in the samples containing the two IL-1 alpha s can be calculated by subtracting the level measured by S-EIA I from that measured by S-EIA II. The two EIA systems with an assay range of 1.5-100 ng/ml do not recognize IL-1 beta, IL-2, rHu-TNF alpha, IFN-alpha and IFN-gamma of human origin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Monoclonal , Immune Sera , Immunoenzyme Techniques , Interleukin-1/analysis , Recombinant Proteins/analysis , Animals , Antibodies, Monoclonal/classification , Aspartic Acid/metabolism , Binding, Competitive , Drug Stability , Female , Humans , Immunoenzyme Techniques/standards , Interleukin-1/analogs & derivatives , Interleukin-1/pharmacokinetics , Interleukin-1/standards , Kinetics , Mice , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Mice, Inbred C3H , Quality Control , Rabbits , Recombinant Proteins/analogs & derivatives , Recombinant Proteins/standardsABSTRACT
We have developed simple methods for measuring recombinant human tumor necrosis factor alpha (rHu-TNF alpha) and antibodies to rHu-TNF alpha in the sera of animals intravenously injected with rHu-TNF alpha. rHu-TNF alpha was measured by a competitive binding enzyme immunoassay (C-EIA) using standard rHu-TNF alpha, beta-galactosidase labeled rHu-TNF alpha as enzyme-labeled antigen (E-Ag) and anti-rabbit IgG goat immunoglobulins coupled to bacterial cell walls (insolubilized second antibody). In contrast, anti-rHu-TNF alpha antibodies were measured by a sandwich EIA (S-EIA) using purified anti-rHu-TNF alpha rabbit IgG as standard, beta-galactosidase labeled rHu-TNF alpha as E-Ag, and rHu-TNF alpha coupled to bacterial cell walls as insolubilized antigen. C-EIA permits the determination of serum rHu-TNF alpha within the range of 2-150 U/ml (about 0.7-52 ng/ml) with a CV of below 7.6% and 99% recovery. S-EIA permits the determination of anti-rHu-TNF alpha antibodies within the range of 70-1000 ng/ml with a CV of less than 4% and 94.8-106.9% recovery.
