Production of Human Antibodies from Transgenic Mice.

Mice transgenic for human immunoglobulin genes offer the opportunity to investigators to derive fully human antibodies using well-established hybridoma technology. Several different strains of such mice are available, and can be obtained under certain conditions from various commercial entities (1-3). The brand names of these mice include XenoMouse®, HuMAb® Mouse, TC™ mouse, and KM™ mouse. The leading transgenic mice all share certain properties. These include the following: 1.the endogenous murine heavy-chain locus has been inactivated by knocking out either all of the JH genes or the Cμ gene (4);2.the endogenous murine kappa light-chain locus has been inactivated by knocking out the Jκ and/or the Cκ genes;3.the endogenous murine lambda light-chain locus remains intact and functional;4.the human heavy-chain transgene contains, at minimum, the majority of the human VH genes, all the D genes, all the JH genes, Cμ Cδ, and at least one Cγ gene, together with regulatory elements; and5.the human kappa light-chain transgene contains the majority of the human Vκ genes, all the Jκ genes, and the Cκ gene, together with regulatory elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]