Comparison of PrP transcription and translation in two murine myeloma cell lines

The generation of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to the prion protein, PrP, is important in order to establish a large repertoire of useful reagents for the diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), or prion diseases. However, the presence of PrP on the surface of all mammalian cells (PrP(C)) causes self-recognition, thereby restricting the ability of mice to produce an immune response to the PrP immunogen. Although this problem has been alleviated with the generation and use of PrP-knockout mice, the production of MAbs has continued to be severely hampered presumably since the fusion partner for spleen-derived lymphocytes was PrP(C)-containing myeloma cell lines. The availability of a mouse myeloma cell line expressing little or no PrP(C) on the surface would therefore be useful for MAb generation. Our data indicate that cells differ in their levels of PrP(C) expression and suggest that not all murine myeloma cell lines are equally useful for obtaining hybridomas secreting anti-PrP MAbs.