Production and flow cytometric application of a monoclonal anti-glucocorticoid receptor antibody.

Detection and monitoring the expression and level of intracellular glucocorticoid receptor (GCR) is necessary in many clinical and experimental situations. Binding of radioactive steroids (3H dexamethasone) to the cytosolic fractions of cells has been recently used. However, it is an expensive, time-consuming technique difficult to use in routine diagnostics. In this article we describe a novel, simple method for GCR detection, using a FITC-conjugated anti-GCR monoclonal antibody (mAb) for flow cytometric measurements in permeabilized cells. The monoclonal antibody was raised against a conserved sequence (150-176 amino acids) of the regulatory part of the receptor. Synthetic peptide (called APTEK-26) fragment of the receptor conjugated to different carriers (TG, BSA) was used for immunization and screening of the hybridomas. The a-GCR 8E9, 3C8 and 5E4 clones (IgG1) were further characterized by immunoserological methods for their reactivity against overlapping synthetic peptide fragments of the receptor and by Western blot technique on cytosolic fraction of HEP G2 cells (containing the GCR). Furthermore the mAbs could be used for the FACS based detection of GCR, despite its low number of antigen structure within the cells. Solving the problem of nonspecific binding of the secondary antibodies we used our high affinity IgG1 a-GCR mAbs directly labeled with the fluorescent dye FITC. The fluorescent labeling of the GCRs in HEP G2 cell line and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were demonstrated by flow cytometric analysis after fixation with 4% paraformaldehyde and permeabilization with saponin. Competition with molar excess of unlabelled antibodies and with the GCR peptide fragment confirmed the specific binding of the 8E9 and 5E4 mAbs to the GCRs. Monitoring the GCR level by flow cytometry would be useful in clinical diagnostics, e.g., in steroid-treated patients and in steroid-resistant states.