title: Monoclonal IgM/A hybrid antibodies: artifacts due to anti-idiotype (T15) antibodies in commercial anti-alpha sera.
abstract: A mouse hybridoma antibody, with specificity for Trichinella spiralis, was found to react against both anti-mu and anti-alpha sera obtained from two to three commercial sources. It also had a unique electrophoretic mobility, bound to staphylococcal protein A, and was comprised of a single type of heavy chain (mu-like) and light chain (kappa). However, Northern blot analysis of RNA extracted from the corresponding hybridoma cells revealed only mu but no alpha message. Subsequent studies on the protein, as well as on a similar "hybrid" antibody previously described, using antisera raised to the antibody but which had been absorbed against normal mu and alpha determinants, suggested an idiotype common to both antibodies: this was intuitively guessed, and later confirmed, to be the phosphorylcholine-specific T15 idiotype. It was further shown that anti-T15 antibodies prevailed in the commercial anti-alpha sera and these (rather than alpha-chain specific antibodies) were responsible for the cross-reactivities of the sera with the hybrid antibodies.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic / Q000276:immunology*; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D000947:Antigens, Helminth / Q000276:immunology; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D007106:Immune Sera / Q000276:immunology; D005779:Immunodiffusion; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000276:immunology*; D007130:Immunoglobulin Idiotypes / Q000276:immunology*; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D014234:Trichinella / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000947:Antigens, Helminth; D007106:Immune Sera; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007130:Immunoglobulin Idiotypes; D007075:Immunoglobulin M