Monoclonal antibodies production introduction

Last modified by wendy wang on 2015/04/01 08:59

Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies which
have a single, selected specificity and which
are continuously secreted by ìimmortalisedî
hybridoma cells. A hybridoma is a biologi-
cally constructed hybrid of a mortal, anti-
body-producing, lymphoid cell, and a
malignant, or ìimmortalî, myeloma cell. Fol-
lowing the discovery of hybridoma technol-
ogy in 1975 , developments in mAb
production and in their application have had
profound implications not only on medical
research, diagnosis and therapy, but also on
biology in general. Hybridoma technology
represents a significant advance because, in
principle, it provides a means for obtaining
unlimited supplies of highly specific antibod-
ies.
In the production of mAbs, animals (gen-
erally rats or mice) first have to be immu-
nised with the target antigen to obtain
mortal antibody-producing cells. The biolog-
ical construction of hybrids, and the selec-
tion of hybridomas which produce antibodies
with the desired specificities, are carried out
in vitro
. In the early days of hybridoma tech-
nology (the late 1970s), the hybridomas
developed
in vitro
were injected into the peri-
toneal cavity of an animal so that useful
amounts of the desired mAb could be har-
vested from the ascitic fluid. This procedure
was considered necessary at the time, since
no efficient large-scale
in vitro
methods were
available. By the mid-1980s, there were
already serious doubts regarding the neces-
sity of such a painful animal procedure. Nev-
ertheless, as a result of its early introduction
as part of the hybridoma technology, ascites
production of mAbs is now employed world-
wide, in spite of the ongoing development
of
in vitro
technologies and the growing pub-
lic pressure to replace or reduce animal
experiments. The urgent need for experts to
disseminate information and make recom-
mendations about antibody production, tak-
ing animal welfare issues into consideration,
was recognised by ECVAM in holding a
workshop on avian antibodies in March 1996
and, subsequently, in organising this
workshop on mAb production.