What is Hybridoma Technology?
- erudite .
- Sep 12, 2021
- 2 min read
By Ella Kang
In a nutshell, hybridoma technology is a way of mass-producing monoclonal antibodies using hybridoma cells. Monoclonal antibodies (mAb or moAb) are identical antibodies produced by clones of a unique parent immune cell that are specific to one single type of antigen. The technique was first invented by Niels K. Jerne, Georges J.F. Köhler, and César Milstein in 1975, also winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 “for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies”. Then the term hybridoma was coined by Leonard Herzenberg in César Milstein’s laboratory in 1976–1977.
More specifically, hybridoma technology starts by injecting a laboratory animal, usually a mouse or less frequently, rabbit or chicken, with a particular antigen that triggers an immune response. This antigen is specific to the needed antibodies, and once the animal goes through the primary immune response, a type of white blood cell (B cell) produces those required antibodies that bind to the injected antigen. Then, the B cells are cultured in petri dishes and mixed with immortal B cell cancer cells called myeloma to promote fusion between the two, forming hybridoma. Cell fusion is usually induced by electric pulses or polyethylene glycol (PEG). In this step, the selection of hybridomas is crucial since there might be unfused myeloma cells, unfused spleen cells, and fused hybridoma cells. Since only the fused hybridoma cells are wanted, the HAT medium (hypoxanthine-aminopterin-thymidine medium) is used to eliminate all that are not able to survive. Successful hybridomas have characteristics of both parent cells; they produce antibodies and divide rapidly for a long time. Hybridoma cells are then cultured and allowed to divide, producing large numbers of clone cells able to produce enough monoclonal antibodies, now ready to be extracted and used for many different applications.
Hybridomas have quickly become one of the most effective technologies for antibody production, being highly cost-effective and efficient. A wide range of fields can benefit from monoclonal antibodies, including prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. An example is distinguishing subsets of B and T cells, which can help identifying different types of leukaemias. Specific monoclonal antibodies can also be used to analyze the cell surface markers on white blood cells and other cell types.
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