PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NONHUMAN PRIMATE MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES

In order to develop the production of primate monoclonal antibodies (m Abs), we selected as antigenic model human red blood cells. Eleven ind ependent hybridoma cell lines producing macaque monoclonal antibodies were cloned. All monoclonal reagents agglutinated all the human red bl ood cells tested, while they were unreactive with erythrocytes of rhes us monkey and of crab-eating macaque. Some of the mAbs detected intras pecies polymorphisms in primates. Particularly, one mAb, Mac 4-E9, is specific of the V(c) chimpanzee alloantigen, others defining polymorph ism among gorillas or gibbons. Functional experiments (Antibody Depend ent Cellular Cytotoxicity and erythrophagocytosis) demonstrated that m acaque mAbs are recognized by the Fc receptors of human cells.