title: High frequencies of antigen-specific hybridomas: dependence on immunization parameters and prediction by spleen cell analysis.
abstract: Hybridomas producing antibodies against soluble antigens have in most cases been difficult to establish. After fusion of myeloma cells with spleen cells obtained from mice immunized with a soluble protein, hybridomas secreting specific antibodies have been observed to occur very rarely among non-specific hybridomas. We found that the frequency of specific hybridomas correlates directly with the increase over background of the frequency of blast and/or plasma cells in the spleen (measured by cell size analysis) after antigenic stimulation. High yields of specific hybridomas were obtained simply by following a novel immunization technique consisting of several conventional preimmunization courses followed by 4 very high doses of antigen in saline on each of the last 4 days before fusion.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000921:Antibody-Producing Cells / Q000276:immunology; D002459:Cell Fusion; D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin / Q000276:immunology; D000939:Epitopes; D005260:Female; D007114:Immunization; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D010954:Plasmacytoma / Q000276:immunology; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D013154:Spleen / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin; D000939:Epitopes