Hybridomas derived from lipopolysaccharide-activated anti-mu-treated B cells have active suppression of IgM secretion, demonstrable by secondary fusion.

Treatment of LPS-stimulated mouse B cells with bivalent anti-mu antibodies suppresses differentiation to Ig-secreting cells without interfering with proliferation. This treatment selectively inhibits up-regulation of transcription of differentiation-related genes. Induction of anti-mu suppression requires RNA and protein synthesis, suggesting involvement of a transcriptional repressor. We describe experiments designed to capture the repressed phenotype of anti-mu-treated cells. Fusions of anti-mu-treated cells with the B lymphoma line M12.4.5, but not plasmacytoma Ag8.653, yielded a significantly lower frequency of secretory hybridomas than did parallel fusion of cells treated with LPS only. To test for active repression, nonsecreting cloned hybridomas were secondarily fused to LPS-activated normal B cells. Secondary hybridomas with anti-mu parentage had a very low frequency of IgM secretion. Active suppression could only be demonstrated by secondary fusion. Neither supernatants nor extracts of repressor hybridomas influenced LPS-driven differentiation of normal B cells. These results confirm that this form of differentiation suppression is an active process, probably mediated by transcriptional controls. Repressor hybridomas should prove useful for studies of molecular mechanisms.