Last modified by wendy wang on 2015/04/01 08:59
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1 Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies which
2 have a single, selected specificity and which
3 are continuously secreted by ìimmortalisedî
4 hybridoma cells. A hybridoma is a biologi-
5 cally constructed hybrid of a mortal, anti-
6 body-producing, lymphoid cell, and a
7 malignant, or ìimmortalî, myeloma cell. Fol-
8 lowing the discovery of hybridoma technol-
9 ogy in 1975 , developments in mAb
10 production and in their application have had
11 profound implications not only on medical
12 research, diagnosis and therapy, but also on
13 biology in general. Hybridoma technology
14 represents a significant advance because, in
15 principle, it provides a means for obtaining
16 unlimited supplies of highly specific antibod-
17 ies.
18 In the production of mAbs, animals (gen-
19 erally rats or mice) first have to be immu-
20 nised with the target antigen to obtain
21 mortal antibody-producing cells. The biolog-
22 ical construction of hybrids, and the selec-
23 tion of hybridomas which produce antibodies
24 with the desired specificities, are carried out
25 in vitro
26 . In the early days of hybridoma tech-
27 nology (the late 1970s), the hybridomas
28 developed
29 in vitro
30 were injected into the peri-
31 toneal cavity of an animal so that useful
32 amounts of the desired mAb could be har-
33 vested from the ascitic fluid. This procedure
34 was considered necessary at the time, since
35 no efficient large-scale
36 in vitro
37 methods were
38 available. By the mid-1980s, there were
39 already serious doubts regarding the neces-
40 sity of such a painful animal procedure. Nev-
41 ertheless, as a result of its early introduction
42 as part of the hybridoma technology, ascites
43 production of mAbs is now employed world-
44 wide, in spite of the ongoing development
45 of
46 in vitro
47 technologies and the growing pub-
48 lic pressure to replace or reduce animal
49 experiments. The urgent need for experts to
50 disseminate information and make recom-
51 mendations about antibody production, tak-
52 ing animal welfare issues into consideration,
53 was recognised by ECVAM in holding a
54 workshop on avian antibodies in March 1996
55 and, subsequently, in organising this
56 workshop on mAb production.
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