RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOSS OF HEAVY-CHAINS AND THE APPEARANCE OF NONPRODUCING HYBRIDOMAS

One drawback to the in vitro production of monoclonal antibodies is th e loss of productivity exhibited by hybridomas over time, which has be en shown to correspond to the appearance of a nonproducing subpopulati on. In this study, we monitored the presence of antibody components, b oth intra- and extracellular, between producing and nonproducing hybri domas. A nonproducing cell population appeared which lacked heavy chai n, while all cultures continued to produce light chain, indicating tha t the loss in antibody production resulted from the absence of heavy c hain and occurred before protein assembly or secretion. (C) 1995 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.