Anti-procollagenase monoclonal antibodies and a method for the assay of procollagenase utilizing thereof

In a sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for determining the amount of procollagenase present in a human body fluid comprising the steps of contacting a sample of the body fluid with a first antibody immobilized on a solid phase and a second antibody labeled with an enzyme to form a complex, said first and second antibodies binding specifically to said procollagenase with a molecular weight of 52,000, whose corresponding collagenase cleaves Type I, Type II and Type III collagens, and determining the amount of said labeled second antibody bound to said complex, the improvement wherein said first and second antibodies are both a monoclonal antibody of the immunoglobulin class and subclass of G.sub.1 having an L-chain of the Kappa isotype, and have a 50% inhibitory concentration of less than 10 ng/ml against said corresponding collagenase;

• said first and second antibodies recognize different epitopes of the procollagenase from each other;
• and wherein said first antibody is produced from a hybridoma of the accession number FERM BP-2701 and said second antibody is produced from a hybridoma of the accession number FERM BP-2700.