Antibodies elicited against the haptens cis-Pt(NH3)2dGuodGMP and its ribo-analog, both covalently coupled to bovine serum albumin, recognize adducts of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cis-DDP) in DNA. Antibody-binding to cis-DDP-DNA strongly depends on the accessibility of the adducts to the antibodies. In double-stranded cis-DDP-DNA with low Pt: nucleotide ratios (rb's), this accessibility is enhanced by unwinding of the cis-DDP-DNA, e.g. by heat-denaturation. An unwinding effect is also induced by the cis-DDP treatment itself. A260nm readings of cis-DDP-DNA samples indicate an increased denaturation of the DNA at increasing Pt-contents. The data obtained after heat-denaturation of the same samples show a growing capability to renaturation when the rb-values increase from 0 to 0.04; at 0.04 less than rb less than 0.18 the renaturation effect gradually disappears. In the competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the cis-DDP-adducts in heat-denatured DNA are detected in the pmol range; in DNA-digests, however, they are recognized in fmol amounts. For the individual Pt-containing (oligo)nucleotides the amounts causing 50% inhibition in the ELISA were established for the two anti-sera; they were 13.3 +/- 3.8 (fmol +/- S.D.) and 5.4 +/- 1.8 for cis-Pt(NH3)2d(GMP)2; 15.5 +/- 5.4 and 4.0 +/- 1.5 for cis-Pt(NH3)2d(pGpG); (2.6 +/- 1.1) X 10(3) and (2.0 +/- 1.0) X 10(3) for cis-Pt(NH3)2d(pApG); (5.6 +/- 1.9) X 10(3) and (2.9 +/- 0.4) X 10(3) for Pt(NH3)3dGMP. Pt-adducts in a trans-DDP-DNA digest are recognized in pmol amounts and dGMP in nmol quantitatives. Finally, the usefulness of these antibodies for the detection and quantitation of individual cis-DDP-adducts in cis-DDP-DNA digests was demonstrated.