Monoclonal Antibodies Against Synovial Collagenase: Use for Immunopurification and Characterization of the Latent and Active Enzyme

Monoclonal antibodies have been produced against porcine synovial collagenasewhich recognize both the active enzyme and its inactive precursor. These antibodies inhibited the collagenolytic activity of collagenase, but not its activity with a synthetic peptide substrate. The antibodies were also able to recognize human synovial, human skin fibroblast and human chondrocyte collagenase but not the enzyme from human granulocytes.

One of the monoclonal antibodies was successfully used for the immunopurificationof the porcine enzyme and these experiments led to the demonstration of an endogenous activator of procollagenase in the synovial cell culture medium.