Recombinant human monoclonal HLA antibodies of different IgG subclasses recognising the same epitope: Excellent tools to study differential effects of donor-specific antibodies

In the field of transplantation, the humoural immune response against mismatched HLA antigens of the donor is associated with inferior graft survival, but not in every patient. Donor-specific HLA antibodies (DSA) of different immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclasses may have differential effects on the transplanted organ. Recombinant technology allows for the generation of IgG subclasses of a human monoclonal antibody (mAb), while retaining its epitope specificity. In order to enable studies on the biological function of IgG subclass HLA antibodies, we used recombinant technology to generate recombinant human HLA mAbs from established heterohybridomas. We generated all four IgG subclasses of a human HLA class I and class II mAb and showed that the different subclasses had a comparable affinity, normal human Fc glycosylation, and retained HLA epitope specificity. For both mAbs, the IgG1 and IgG3 isotypes were capable of binding complement component 3d (C3d) and efficient in complement-dependent cell lysis against their specific targets, while the IgG2 and IgG4 subclasses were not able to induce cytotoxicity. Considering the fact that the antibody-binding site and properties remained unaffected, these IgG subclass HLA mAbs are excellent tools to study the function of individual IgG subclass HLA class I and class II-specific antibodies in a controlled fashion.