RABBIT MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES - GENERATING A FUSION PARTNER TO PRODUCERABBIT RABBIT HYBRIDOMAS

During the last 15 years several laboratories have attempted to genera te rabbit monoclonal antibodies, mainly because rabbits recognize anti gens and epitopes that are not immunogenic in mice or rats, two specie s from which monoclonal antibodies are usually generated. Monoclonal a ntibodies from rabbits could not be generated, however, because a plas macytoma fusion partner was not available. To obtain a rabbit plasmacy toma cell line that could be used as a fusion partner we generated tra nsgenic rabbits carrying two transgenes, c-myc and v-abl. These rabbit s developed plasmacytomas, and we obtained several plasmacytoma cell l ines from which we isolated hypoxanthine/aminopterin/thymidine-sensiti ve clones. One of these clones, when fused with spleen cells of immuni zed rabbits, produced stable hybridomas that secreted antibodies speci fic for the immunogen. The hybridomas can be cloned and propagated in nude mice, and they can be frozen without change in their ability to s ecrete specific monoclonal antibodies. These rabbit-rabbit hybridomas will be useful not only for production of monoclonal antibodies but al so for studies of immunoglobulin gene rearrangements and isotype switc hing.