Comparison of paraquat-specific murine monoclonal antibodies produced by in vitro and in vivo immunization.

The techniques of in vitro and in vivo immunization have been used to produce murine hybridomas secreting anti-paraquat IgM and IgG antibodies, respectively. The monoclonal antibodies from these IgM-secreting and IgG-secreting cell lines have been purified by HPLC and characterized by ELISA for their affinities to eliciting antigen and cross-reactivity. Both antibody preparations exhibited high selectivity and similar affinities for paraquat. There was only a minor degree of interaction with a range of paraquat analogs that differed in the nature and position of group substituents.