Determination of the optimal human cell lines for development of human hybridomas

Six human cell lines were compared with each other and with murine myeloma NS-1 as to their sensitivity to HAT medium and their ability to form hybrids with human lymphocytes, secret monoclonal immunoglobulin, clone, and maintain detectable levels of monoclonal immunoglobulin secretion for a period of time after fusion. Fusion efficiencies varied from 0 to 50%, and the incidence of immunoglobulin secretion ranged between 1 and 78% of the hybrids. Immunoglobulin secretion of cloned hybrids varied from 0.8 to 1.6 micrograms/ml/10(6) cells among the human-human hybrids and was 2.4 micrograms/ml/10(6) cells by the human-mouse hybrid. Among the lines tested, UC729-6 and HF2 appeared optimal for pursuing further studies with human-human hybridomas. In addition, although only a small percentage of hybrids were produced with HMy2, a very high percentage secreted immunoglobulin, so that this line also warrants further investigation to improve the efficiency of hybrid formation. Implications for specific monoclonal antibody production and for therapy of leukemias and lymphomas by anti-idiotype antibodies are discussed.