Electric field-induced cell fusion and human monoclonal antibodies.

A persistent problem in the generation of antigen-specific human monoclonal antibodies is the rarity of appropriate B cells in human blood or splenic tissues. In order to immortalize the rare antigen-specific cells that are available, an electric field-induced cell fusion technique has been shown to markedly increase the fusion efficiency in comparison to polyethylene glycol-induced cell fusion using Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) or pokeweed mitogen activated B cells. Fusion efficiency of 10(-3)-10(-4) has been achieved by this process with as low as 1 X 10(6) input EBV-activated B cells. A panel of human monoclonal antibodies to human cytomegalovirus has subsequently been produced using this technique. This improvement should enable wider therapeutic and diagnostic applications of human monoclonal antibodies.