Sandwich enzyme immunoassay for serum integrins using monoclonal antibodies

We produced monoclonal antibodies (mABs) against human integrins. Competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) revealed that each mAB bound to different antigenic determinants. We then developed sandwich-type enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) to measure the concentration of fibronectin receptor (FNR) and vitronectin receptor (VNR). Serum immunoreactive integrin levels were measured using these EIAs in various liver and malignant diseases. In almost all cases of liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), serum integrin levels were significantly elevated, but were in the normal range in gastric, colon, lung cancer, and acute hepatitis (AH). The correlation between serum FNR and VNR levels was statistically significant in all cases of liver disease, and no correlation was observed between these integrin levels and conventional biochemical markers such as AST, ALT, and GGT. The serum integrin levels were demonstrated to be a potential diagnostic marker for hepatic fibrogenesis and carcinogenesis, and these sandwich EIAs could be useful for determination of these integrins in clinical laboratory tests.