A high‐affinity human monoclonal igm antibody reacting with multiple strains of mycoplasma hominis

Human mknoclonal antibodies were produced against Mycoplasma hominis by in vitro immunization of peripheral blood lymphocytes from a healthy seropositive donor using low amounts of antigen (5 ng/ml). The immune B lymphocytes were subsequently immortalized by Epstein-Barr virus transformation followed by somatic cell fusion. Using this procedure, several specific anti-M. hominis monoclonal antibodies of μ isotype were obtained exhibiting apparent affinity constants as high as 3 × 109 M−1. The productivity of a number of different hybridomas was determined to be in the range 7-22 μg × (24 hr × 106 cells)−1. The specificity of one antibody, 129.1, was further characterized by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay against several different species of Mycoplasma and by Western blot analysis. The antibody specifically bound to a protein of M, 100,000 present in 10 of 12 different strains of M. hominis.