Monoclonal antibodies: technology and potential use.

The production of monoclonal antibodies through cell hybridization is a form of biotechnology that permits the dissection of complex antibody responses into their individual components. The procedure makes use of simple cell fusion techniques and standard in vitro tissue culture systems. The 2 essential biological components are immunized mice or rats and tumor cell lines of lymphoid origin called myelomas. Single antibody-forming cells from immunized rodents are fused with myeloma cells to create hybrid cells with properties of both parent cell types. The hybrids have an unlimited capacity to grow similar to the myeloma parent, and they produce the single type of antibody molecule that they inherited from the normal antibody-forming cell parent. Hybrid cells derived in this way can produce unlimited quantities of specific antibody in tissue culture or when grown in vivo as ascites tumors. By appropriate selection techniques, it is possible to produce monoclonal antibodies to virtually any antigen. Because the monoclonal antibodies are a completely homogeneous population, their use in laboratory tests incurs fewer problems with cross-reactivity than is often observed with conventional antisera. Monoclonal antibodies are finding wide application in many areas of medicine and biological science.