Immunization strategies for the production of rat monoclonal anti-idiotope antibodies.

Anti-idiotypic antibodies are powerful reagents for the study of immunoregulation, and have potential interest as vaccines against tumors and infectious diseases. Three immunization strategies for the production of rat monoclonal anti-idiotope antibodies have been compared in this paper. Male Wistar rats were immunized i.p. and at multiple subcutaneous sites with 750 micrograms of purified monoclonal antibody against Plasmodium falciparum for three times and subsequently boosted by (1) intraperitoneal injection with 750 micrograms of the immunogen, (2) intravenous inoculation with 400 micrograms of the IgG, and (3) intrasplenic immunization with 200 micrograms of the idiotype. With the intraperitoneal boost method, the frequency of hybrids with anti-idiotope activity was 0.3-0.9% with 62.8-85.2% of the seeded wells containing hybrids. In the intravenous boost group, the percentage of hybrids demonstrating anti-idiotope activity increased to 11.0-13.3% with 80.2-97.9% of the hybrid efficiency. When immunized by the intrasplenic boost route, the frequency of anti-idiotope hybrids generated rose to 12.9-16.4% with 82.3-96.6% of the hybrid efficiency. There was no obvious effect of the boost immunizing methods on the generation of rat monoclonal anti-mouse IgG antibodies. These results indicated that the multiple-site immunization followed by intravenous or intrasplenic boost injection was an appropriate immunizing method for the production of monoclonal anti-idiotope antibodies.

Cholesterol requirement for growth of IR983F and P3X63-Ag8-U1 myeloma cells in serum-free medium.

Cholesterol, a major lipid component of the plasma membrane, is thought to have profound effects on the structure and function of cells. Most animal tissues are capable of synthesizing cholesterol de novo from acetate; however, there are relatively few mammalian cells in vitro expressing an absolute requirement for an exogenous source of cholesterol. In this paper, it was shown that both IR983F (983) rat myeloma cells and P3X63-Ag8-U1 (P3U1) mouse myeloma cells which had been cultivated in serum-free medium containing cholesterol for more than 6 months still required cholesterol in vitro for growth in serum-free medium. Optimal growth of 983 and P3U1 occurred in cholesterol concentrations of 15 and 5 micrograms/ml, respectively. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the cholesterol could be replaced by human low density lipoprotein in a concentration of 10 micrograms/ml but not by mevalonic acid lactone. In contrast to the parental myeloma cells, hybridoma cells derived from the mouse myeloma cells which had been cultivated in serum-free medium containing cholesterol for more than 6 months did not require cholesterol.

[Preliminary studies on the diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria by monoclonal antibody sandwich dot-immunogold silver staining assay].

In this report, the blood samples from 30 falciparum malaria patients with parasitemia 0.015-0.58% and the blood samples from 30 healthy persons were examined by monoclonal antibody (McAb) sandwich dot-immunogold silver staining assay (Dot-IGSSA). When the McAb 11G5, 13A2 and 13A1 were used for sandwich Dot-IGSSA with McAb 14D9 labeled with colloidal gold respectively, the 0.0001% of parasitemia could be detected and the McAb 11G5, 13A1 and 14D9 labeled with colloidal gold could also be used to detect the antigens of asexual blood stages of Yunnan and Anhui isolates of Plasmodium falciparum cultured in vitro. These McAbs did not cross-react with the antigens of Plasmodium knowlesi and Plasmodium berghei, however, the McAbs 13A1 and 14D9 weakly cross-reacted with the antigens of Plasmodium cynomolgi and the antigens in the infected blood samples from patients with vivax malaria.