Assessing genetic heterogeneity in production cell lines: detection by peptide mapping of a low level Tyr to Gln sequence variant in a recombinant antibody.

A recombinant antibody directed against the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 extracellular domain was subjected to detailed structural characterization. Heterogeneity in the heavy chain was demonstrated by recovery of two forms of a tryptic peptide, with either glutamine or the expected tyrosine at residue 376. Subsequent experiments indicated that the Y376Q variant developed during transfection of the antibody heavy and light chain genes into Chinese hamster ovary cells. Levels of the Y376Q variant (range: 27% to 1%) in the purified antibody were inversely proportional to cell age. The established cell line was subcloned and found to be heterogeneous by polymerase chain reaction analysis of cell extracts and protein analysis of the purified antibody. Ten percent of subclones produced high levels of the Y376Q variant while 90% of the subclones produced antibody with only the expected heavy chain sequence. This report demonstrates the utility of peptide mapping as a sensitive tool for assessing genetic heterogeneity of recombinant cell lines.