title: Cytokine-deficient mice as a model for generation of autologous anti-cytokine monoclonal antibodies.
abstract: The possibility of inducing immune responses to murine interleukin-4 (IL-4) and IL-13 and generating anti-cytokine monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) was studied in IL-4- and IL-13-knockout mice. The minimal doses of IL-4 or IL-13 that could induce significant anti-cytokine responses with titers of 5000-10,000 were 20 microg per injection with the total doses of 100 microg. The highest titers in a range of 20,480-40,960 were achieved by triple immunization of IL-13-knockout mice with 30 microg of IL-13 per injection. Anti-IL-4 mAbs were generated at an antibody serum titer about 400; however, only 0.5% of primary hybridoma clones were anti-IL-4-positive. Anti-IL-13 cell fusions were successful at titers of 20,480 and 40,960 with 50% of the primary clones positive. Both hybridomas secreted low-affinity IgMkappa mAbs and were IL-6-dependent. These data demonstrate that IL-4- and IL-13-deficient mice may develop high polyclonal immune responses to "syngeneic" murine cytokines but fail to generate high-affinity mAbs at the tested conditions.
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0563, USA. shvpmail@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Valentin P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Shichkin
authors.forename: Nikolai Y
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Spivak
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006825:Hybridomas; D007114:Immunization; D018793:Interleukin-13 / Q000276:immunology*; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D018345:Mice, Knockout
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D018793:Interleukin-13; D015847:Interleukin-4