Specific and sensitive quantitation of transforming growth factor beta 3 by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Transforming growth factors beta (TGF-beta) consist of a highly homologous family of 25 kDa dimers involved in a diverse array of biological functions. Progress in understanding the biology of the third isoform (TGF-beta 3) of this family has been limited by the absence of a quantitative assay for TGF-beta 3. Here we report the development of a sensitive and specific sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (SELISA), which is based on an anti-TGF-beta mouse monoclonal IgG as the capture antibody and chicken anti-recombinant-hTGF-beta 3 IgY as the secondary antibody. This assay can quantitate TGF-beta 3 in complex biological fluids, with a detection limit of 2 pg and no cross-reactivity or interference with as high as 1000-fold molar excesses of either TGF-beta s 1, 2 or 1.2. This TGF-beta 3 SELISA is the first reported assay for the direct and sensitive quantitation of TGF-beta 3 in complex biological fluids.