The use of heterohybridomas to produce human monoclonal antibodies against gonococcal outer membrane proteins

Abstract

To achieve a better understanding of the immune response to gonococcal infection, we are interested in the production of antibodies at the mucosal level. Quantities of specific antibodies from these locations are hard to obtain making functional assays difficult. To produce these antibodies we attempted to make heterohybridomas secreting specific human monoclonal antibodies. Although our ultimate goal is to use lymphocytes isolated from human fallopian tubes as fusion partners we are reporting our success at fusing human peripheral blood mononuclear cells with murine myeloma cells for the production of specific antigonococcal monoclonal antibodies.