Generation of heterohybridomas capable of releasing swine monoclonal antibody specific to porcine growth hormone.

An effort was made to generate stable swine hybridomas capable of releasing monoclonal antibodies (MAb) with antigenic specificity. Crossbred pigs were immunized with recombinant porcine growth hormone (r-pGH) and the splenic cells were harvested from these animals. B lymphocytes enriched by gradient centrifugation and nylon wool adherence were briefly stimulated in vitro with r-pGH prior to hybridization with murine SP2/0 myeloma cells. The fused hybrids were screened for their ability to produce anti-pGH antibody and the positive ones were subcloned by a limiting dilution procedure. The stable cell lines were maintained by serial passages in cultures for further analysis. One such hybridoma, designated PM20/20, was found to secrete swine IgM. It recognized not only the immunizing r-pGH but also the native pGH extracted from the swine pituitary glands, as demonstrated by Western analysis. It also recognized two smaller fragments with m.w. of 10 kD and 5 kD of r-pGH following trypsin digestion. In addition to pGH, PM20/20 immunoreacted with several other GH species including bovine, chicken, and human origins, but not with ovine prolactin nor rat GH binding protein. The binding association rate constant and dissociation rate constant of PM20/20 to pGH were 5.3 x 10(4) M-1 s-1 and 1.0 x 10(-4) s-1, respectively, thus producing a dissociation constant of 1.9 x 10(-9) M. Therefore, stable swine-mouse heterohybridoma lines have been established and shown to continuously release swine mAb in cultures. These mAb may serve as useful alternatives to murine mAb in certain areas of research.