Cloning and sequence analysis of cDNAs encoding the heavy and light chain variable regions of a human monoclonal antibody with specificity for hepatitis B surface antigen.

We cloned and analyzed the cDNA sequences encoding the variable regions of a human monoclonal antibody (23HN) (gamma1, kappa) that binds to the common a antigenic determinant on hepatitis B surface antigen and its fine epitope is different from those of previously known mAbs with the same specificity. The heavy and light chain variable regions are the members of human heavy chain subgroup III and kappa light chain subgroup III, respectively, and are most homologous to human germline VH segment DP-50 and Vkappa segment DPK-22, respectively.