and the experimental discussion are set forth to aid in an understanding of the invention but are not intended to and should not be construed to limit in any way the invention as set forth in the claims which follow balb c mice charles river laboratories were immunized by the intraperitoneal route with pha activated human pbmc pha activated pbmc at 6 u00d7 10 7 cells mouse mice received 5 subsequent booster injections of between 2 5 u00d7 10 7 cells over a six month period for preparation of activated spleen cells 2 mice were injected intraperitoneally and intravenously with 1 u00d7 10 7 and 2 5 u00d7 10 6 cells respectively on two successive days starting four days prior to the cell fusion spleen cells were isolated from these mice and fused with sp2 0 cells at a ratio of 1 1 with 35 v v polyethylene glycol 4000 e merck according to the method of fazekas et al j immunol methods 35 1 1980 the fused cells were plated at a density of 6 u00d7 10 5 cells ml well in 48 well cluster dishes in imdm supplemented with 10 fbs glutamine 2 mm u03b2 mercaptoethanol 0 1 mm gentamicin 50 g ml 5 origen hybridoma cloning factor igen inc 5 p388d1 supernatant 10 and 100 units ml rhuil 6 hybridoma supernatants were assayed for specific anti il 12 receptor antibodies by 1 immunoprecipitation of the soluble complex of 125 i huil 12 crosslinked to il 12 receptor 125 i.