Implications for the assay and biological activity of interleukin-4. Results of a WHO international collaborative study

Anthony R. Mire-Sluis*, Rose Gaines Das, Robin Thorpe, Sandra Thomas, Darryl Maher, Peter Valent, Elisabeth Payer, Groote De Groote, Kent Hayglass, H. Ziltener, Lars K. Poulsen, Pierre Miossec, P. Chomarat, Jacques Grassi, G. Pawelec, U. Fritzsche, M. Falk, M. Topp, G. Reisbach, John SidiropoulosS. Z. Ben-Sasson, Zeev Even-Chen, Luigi Pegoraro, Francesco Barboni, Kenkichi Sugimoto, K. Tsuji, Tomoaki Matsumoto, Kenrichi Arai, Takashi Yokota, J. Olobo, G. Wagemaker, T. Van Der Pouw-Kraan, Kirrikant V. Sheth, C. Gutierrez, D. Rivas, Nils Lyeke, Karin Schön, John P.A. Bews, K. Tullberg, R. Klotzbücher, L. Page, C. Bird, Colin P. McGuckin, John Gordon, Anita Katira, Peter Openshaw, Andrew Georgiou, Nydia G. Testa, Robin Callard, K. Paik, John McKearn, Marie Rock, Kathleen Harper, Steven J. Swanson, Jay P. Siegel, H. L. Spiegelberg, John Geigert, Kerri Carter, William E. Paul, Cynthia Watson, Monica Tsang, Li Zhou, Louis Westreich, Chun C. Chao, Terry L. Riss, Rich Moravec

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Five ampouled preparations of interleukin-4 (IL-4) have been evaluated by 36 laboratories in 14 countries for their suitability to serve as an international standard for this material in a joint international collaborative study for interleukin-3 (IL-3) and IL-4. The preparations were assayed in a wide range of in vitro bioassays and immunoassays. It is clear from the study that different recombinant preparations of IL-4 can have very different biological specific activities, including those from the same source (i.e., E. coli). In addition, immunoassay estimates of IL-4 levels did not correlate with those of bioassays, illustrating the fact that immunoassays do not necessarily measure active cytokine. It is of interest that the estimates provided by the different bioassays were less variable than those produced by the immunoassays, suggesting that bioassays can be as accurate, if not more so, than immunoassays. The large reduction in the variability of estimates with the inclusion of a single reference preparation clearly illustrates the need for a single standard to assay IL-4. On the basis of the results reported here, with the agreement of the participants of the study with the authorization of the Expert Committee on Biological Standardization (ECBS) on the World Health Organization (WHO) the preparation of IL-4 (88/656) was established as the international standard for interleukin-4 with an assigned unitage of 1000 IU/ampoule.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13-25
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Immunological Methods
Volume194
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 17 Jul 1996

Keywords

  • IL-4
  • Standardization

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