V(H) and V(L) gene complexes encoding an anti-spectrin antibody are defined by nucleotide sequencing of cDNA from a hybridoma generated from hu- PBL-scid mouse

Previously we reported that human immunocompetent cells engraved into scid mice mount a sustained and vigorous humoral immune response to murine erythrocytes. One of the dominant and consistently observed reactivity pattern of these antibodies in immunoblot analysis is with the α and β isoforms of spectrin. In order to define the human xenoreactive response more completely, a hybridoma was generated (from a hu-PBL-scid mouse) whose antibody reacted with two high molecular weight species 225 to 250 kDa. We report here that this conserved antibody species reacts with both the murine and human erythrocyte proteins and cDNA nucleotide sequence analysis of the light and heavy chain genes encoding this antibody reveals that the light chain variable region gene has been previously observed in association with an autoreactive antibody. In addition to characterizing a conserved human B cell clonotype this is the first report of a human monoclonal antibody being generated from the hu-PBL-scid model using the standard hybridoma technology.