Production of monoclonal antibodies to dehydroepiandrosterone-sulphate after immunization of mouse with dehydroepiandrosterone-bovine serum albumin conjugate

Monoclonal antibodies with a much higher specificity for DHA-S than for DHA were obtained from a BALB/c mouse immunized with a non-sulphated DHA-7CMO-BSA antigen. An improved fusion technique using PEG containing 10% DMSO instead of PEG alone increased the number of positive hybridomas. One of the five monoclonal antibodies obtained, showed a high affinity for DHA-S ( K a = 10 10M −1) and very low cross-reactions with androsterone (0.62%) and androsterone sulphate (0.83%) which made it potentially useful for direct quantitation of DHA-S in human serum.