Parathyrin radioimmunoassay: diagnostic utility of antisera produced against carboxyl-terminal fragments of the hormone from the human.

Antisera directed toward the carboxyl-terminal region of human parathyrin (parathyroid hormone), for use in daignostically applicable radioimmunoassays of the hormone in serum, are scarce, largely because of the lack of suitable immunogens of human origin. We produced four antisera in goats and guinea pigs by immunization with recently discovered carboxyl-terminal fragments of human parathyrin extracted from parathyroid tumors. Here, we report results of radioimmunoassays of nearly 200 normal and pathological sera with one of these antisera; we observed almost complete differentiation between concentrations of parathyrin in serum of healthy normal subjects and patients with primary, secondary (due to chronic renal failure), or "ectopic" hyperparathyroidism (due to nonparathyroid cancer). The availability of a new immunogen should now make possible the deliberate production of large quantities of diagnostically applicable parathyrin antisera directed toward the carboxyl-terminal region of human parathyrin. This should, in turn, lead to more widespread availability of this useful radioimmunoassay.