The relationship of the properties of antihemophilic factor (factor VIII) that support ristocetin-induced platelet agglutination (factor VIIIR:RC) and platelet retention by glass beads as demonstrated by a monoclonal antibody.

A monoclonal antibody to human antihemophilic factor (AHF, factor VIII) was derived from BALB/c mouse spleen cells fused with P3x63Ag8 mouse plasmacytoma cells. This antibody, harvested from culture medium or ascites fluid, reacted with purified AHF and with plasmas with normal subjects or classic hemophiliacs, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), but not with plasmas from patients with severe von Willebrand's disease. The antibody possessed only IgG, heavy chains and kappa light chains. It blocked ristocetin-induced platelet agglutination and, to a lesser degree, platelet retention by glass bead columns, but it did not inhibit the procoagulant activity of AHF significantly. An amount of rabbit antiserum against AHF that provided equivalent inhibition of ristocetin-induced platelet agglutination inhibited glass bead retention much more effectively than the mouse monoclonal antibody. This difference was exaggerated in studies of the corresponding Fab fragments. These data suggest that the site or sites on the AHF complex molecule that are associated with ristocetin-induced platelet agglutination differ quantitatively or qualitatively from those associated with enhancement of platelet retention by glass beads. ELISA titers of immunoreactive AHF, using the monoclonal antibody, were closely correlated to those using rabbit antiserum against AHF in normal, hemophilic, and most von Willebrand's disease plasma.