A rapid biologic assay for the detection of interleukin 1.

The detection of human peripheral blood-derived IL 1 was accomplished by a modification of the monokine-dependent conversion assay of the cell line LBRM-33 from the IL 2 nonproducer to producer phenotype after incubation with the monokine and lectin. The conversion of the LBRM-33 subclone, 1A5B6, was modified by directly adding the IL 2-dependent cell line CTLL-2 to metabolically inactivated LBRM-33. This enabled the more rapid identification of macrophage-derived IL 1 and was approximately 1000 to 10,000 times more sensitive than the traditional thymocyte proliferation assay. It is hoped that with the assay described here, it will be feasible to more accurately screen for the presence of this important immunoregulatory molecule in an immune response.