Thirteen monoclonal antibodies to human leukocyte interferon have been obtained. They exhibit different patterns of binding to purified leukocyte interferon species that are consistent with the structural multiplicity of the human leukocyte interferons. These antibodies will be useful as probes into the structure of the human leukocyte interferons, for their purification, and for rapid assay of leukocyte interferon.Monoclonal antibodies have proven to be invaluable for the characterization, quantitative analysis, and purification of macromolecular antigens. Of particular interest and value are antibodies against biologically active compounds such as interferon. So far, quantitation of interferon can only be determined by relatively complex and time-consuming bioassays. In addition, purification of the interferons by specific monoclonal antibodies may simplify the purification procedures immensely.Our recent progress in the purification of the human leukocyte interferons (1-3) made it feasible to attempt the production of interferon-specific monoclonal antibodies by the hybridoma technique of Kohler and Milstein (4). In this communication, we report the production of 13 hybridomas that secrete monoclonal antibodies against the human leukocyte interferons. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURESInterferon Preparations. Partially purified human leukocyte interferon (IF-L) was available in sufficient quantities for immunization of mice. Five preparations were used: (i) IF-L yMa) fraction from a Lichrosorb diol column (2, 3) with an approximate purity of 10-15%, as estimated by NaDodSO4/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (Fig.

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