[Analysis of bladder cancer-associated antigens and their application to diagnosis]

Hybridomas were established from cell fusions between mouse myeloma cells and mouse or rat spleen cells immune to human and rat bladder tumors. Hybridoma supernatants were screened for their immunospecificities against human bladder tumor tissues and urine samples from bladder cancer patients. Eight monoclonal antibodies including 2 rat antibodies were selected and their diagnostic values were assessed. Four mouse monoclonal antibodies termed IMb1, IMb4, IMb9 and PMe were shown to react with 40 to 80% of human bladder tumor tissues examined in this investigation. No relationship was found between the antigen expression and clinical stage of the disease. Four other antibodies termed S31, S85, HBP-1 and RBM-1 reacted with antigens in urine from patients with bladder tumor and other types of uropathy, in contrast to their low reactivities against urine from healthy donors.